Secretary Andanar: Duterte admin
upholds tough stance against corruption, open to probe on allegations
MANILA -
Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Secretary Martin Andanar
on Saturday said that the Duterte administration remains tough on its campaign
against corruption and is open to investigations, which proves its bid for
transparency in government.
Secretary Andanar
was referring to the motu propio
investigations of the House of Representatives and the Senate in the past week
regarding the alleged overpricing of purchased Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for medical
frontliners last year.
“The national
government accepted, welcomed the investigation which affected our COVID-19
response in a way that we proved that there is transparency. Because of the
Senate and Congressional investigations, we have proven that democracy is
working," he said in an interview.
“It has become an
avenue for the Duterte administration to show to the legislature and to the
people that we have continued to uphold our tough stance against all forms of
corruption,” he added.
Commission on
Audit (COA) Chairman Michael Aguinaldo reiterated their agency's clarification
before the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee that
there was no incident of overpricing on Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corp.'s transaction worth P8.68-billion of PPE and other
medical supplies for the Department of Health (DoH).
The
Department of Budget and
Management (DBM), who facilitated the said purchase, had also previously denied
the allegations, stressing their efforts to support transparency rather than
join in on the politicking.
Secretary
Andanar said that the purchase of the medical supplies was ethical and
necessary given that there was an urgent need to protect the medical
frontliners who are directly managing patients who are positive with COVID-19.
“We
are all aware that cases of COVID-19 was rising during that time and our
healthcare workers were in dire need of protection,” he said.
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