By Filane Mikee Cervantes/Philippine News Agency
Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corp. official Krizle Grace Mago on Monday said the company never delivered damaged coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) supplies to the government as the firm conducts routine quality inspection prior to making deliveries.
During the hearing of the House Good Government and Public Accountability, Mago denied the allegations made by the witness presented by Senator Risa Hontiveros at a Senate probe that Pharmally delivered supposedly “substandard” face shields.
“It is in the conduct of this quality control that PPC was able to identify damaged items such as, but not limited to, dented, folded, torn or broken, and discolored face shields,” she said.
Mago said contrary to the allegations made, these damaged items are immediately segregated subject to proper disposal, and therefore excluded from delivery.
In the conduct of repacking, she said different packs with broken quantities were merged to produce uniform packs containing 10 face shields each.
“As a result of the merging, some certificates got mixed up while others were subsequently discarded as the staff only needed to choose one product certificate to include in the pack,” she said.
The witness, who was supposedly working at a warehouse run by Pharmally, revealed in the Senate hearing that the firm asked the workers to replace certificate stickers on face shields from 2020 to this year.
Mago, however, noted that neither of the two certificate stickers on the face shields were expired.
“The old certificate, which was replaced, had a production date of April 2020 with a validity of three years, whereas the new certificate had a production date of April 2021 with a validity of 24 months,” she said.
The Department of Health (DOH) earlier said it is investigating reports on the suspected tampering of manufacturing dates of face shields procured from Pharmally.
Upon the directive of Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, the department is conducting a comprehensive review of procurement transactions, including the inspection of incoming or currently housed stocks of personal protective equipment (PPE) procured from Pharmally, either directly or indirectly, through the Procurement Service of the Department of Budget and Management (PS-DBM).
Pharmally previously won the bid for the face shield contract with the DOH, a separate procurement from PS-DBM.
The procurement of the face shields was done through a competitive bidding process wherein eight prospective bidders submitted their prices for the face shields in March 2021.
The DOH said Pharmally has delivered more than 500,000 pieces of face shields.
However, the department has not yet paid Pharmally as it has yet to complete the deliveries of the procured face shields.
“We are fast-tracking our investigation on the face shields delivered to the DOH and if those are the ones being referred to in the Senate hearing. If the face shields are proven to be tampered with, we would definitely take necessary legal remedies. The DOH assures that prior to sending out any procured items for use by our health care workers, these are duly inspected. Likewise, health facilities have to inspect, count, and verify the items they received from the DOH,” said lawyer Charade Mercado-Grande, Undersecretary of the Health Regulation Team.
The DOH added that it would further implement stringent measures of inspection during delivery to ensure procured supplies are neither damaged nor have exceeded their shelf life. (PNA) -rir
