The Makabayan Bloc in the House of Representatives filed a resolution urging a probe on the Commission on Audit’s (COA) 2020 report detailing the Department of Health’s (DOH) misused COVID-19 response funds worth P67.3 billion.
The resolution highlighted significant sums of money that have been flagged by the COA in its 2020 audit report. It included P24,641,119,764.42 worth of “unobligated funds” supposedly for the use of “strengthening the agency’s capacity” in providing accessible basic medical care to Filipinos, as well as P2,832,390,957.33 worth of Health Facilities Enhancement Program (HFEP) infrastructure that were left idle or unused “with significant delay in implementation.” The deficiencies amounted to P67,323,186,570.57.
The Makabayan bloc underscores that DOH’s misused funds are due to the “non-compliance of pertinent laws, rules, and regulations and contributed to the challenges encountered and missed opportunities of the DOH during the state of calamity/public emergency.” The resolution particularly addressed the allocation of numerous medical drugs and medicines found to be expired or nearly expiring. COA also reported more than P488 million worth of unused funds for the COVID-19 response in Regions II, V, VI, X, XII, and the National Capital Region (NCR).
The lawmakers asserted the ineffective response and fraudulent excuses by the DOH during more than a year into the Duterte administration’s militaristic lockdown. They highlighted the clamor of the people for economic aid, and efficient mass testing and contact tracing, alongside free COVID-19 treatment; yet were “told impossible due to lack of funds while billions were unused or misused by the DOH.”
The resolution concludes with highlighting the government and the DOH’s role in effectively allocating the limited resources in combating the pandemic. They further that the Duterte’s administration’s irresponsible response to the health and economic crisis “amounts to criminal negligence as thousands of Filipinos already died and are dying of getting infected of the viral disease.”
Featured image courtesy of Philippines Lifestyle News.
