By Billy Begas
Members of the Makabayan bloc have jointly filed a resolution calling for a congressional investigation on the alleged preference of the national government to purchase imported instead of locally-made personal protective equipment (PPEs).
House Resolution 1735 urged the Committee on Trade and Industry to conduct the investigation.
At the height of scarcity of PPEs last year, five local garment companies formed the Coalition of Philippine Manufacturers of PPE (CPMP) and invested $35 million to repurpose their companies to produce medical grade PPE.
The CPMP can produce 57.6 million pieces of medical grade N95, N88, KN95, and surgical masks and 3 million coveralls and gowns and 1.5 million square meters of medical-grade fabric per month.
Due to economic downturn, some 3,500 employees from three of the five companies under CPMP were retrenched from June to December last year.
“However, despite the encouraging the local production of PPEs, the national government still preferred the procurement of imported PPE, mostly from China. This importation preference, which not only affected our much-needed dollar reserves also practically elbowed out local manufacturers that the government had asked to repurpose their factories for the anticipated increase demand for PPE during the pandemic,” the resolution read.
The resolution said that the Procurement Service of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), which serves as the national government’s procurement arm for PPE and other commodities for the pandemic, and the Department of Health (DOH) that provides the technical specifications of the PPE and needed equipment “should be made accountable for this clearly lopsided policy.”
Source: Latest Politics News Today (Politics.com.ph)
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