News Roundup 07 September 2021
Sep 07, 2021 • 5 min Read
Philippines sees 18,012 more COVID-19 cases, 13 labs without data | PHILSTAR.COM – Health authorities on Tuesday reported 18,012 more coronavirus cases a day before the country eases quarantine restrictions. Today’s figures pushed the country’s total to 2,121,308. Active cases were also down by 996 from the 159,633 on September 6. The Department of Health said 13 laboratories did not submit test results.
- Active cases: 158,637 or 7.5% of the total
- Recoveries: 18,945, bringing the number to 1,928,173
- Deaths: 161, or now 34,498 in total
‘Nalugi kami’: Local maker answered call for masks but deliveries ‘pushed out, delayed’ by gov’t | PHILSTAR.COM – EMS Components Assembly, a local electronics assembly firm, says it invested P200 million last year to purchase raw materials and repurpose its facilities for the production of surgical face masks at the urging of the Department of Trade and Industry. It was patriotism that eventually drove the firm to shift to mask production at the onset of the pandemic, EMS chairman and CEO Ferdinand “Perry” Ferrer told senators at a Blue Ribbon Committee hearing on “deficiencies” in pandemic spending flagged by state auditors. “I believe[d it was] our duty as a Filipino company because it [was] the government who requested [that we produce face masks],” he said. On April 27, 2020, the Department of Budget and Management awarded EMS a contract to produce 100 million face masks for P13.5 apiece— half the price of P27.72 paid to the controversial Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corp. that bagged the largest pandemic contracts with the government. But EMS’ deliveries were “pushed out and delayed” by the DBM’s procurement service, Ferrer told senators. In addition to this, although the company managed to produce the 100 million face maks, only 25% of them would be purchased by the government at the initially agreed-upon price. “Per contract with PS-DBM, our shipments would have started in June at 8.5 million [masks] per month,” Ferrer told senators. “[W]e were [allowed] to ship only 5.3 million [masks] in June and the balance was delayed.” “We were put on hold,” he added. “There was a communication to us that our shipments were put on hold and not to deliver.” Ferrer said they were not given the authority by DBM to make the full shipment because government warehouses were supposedly full. “Eventually, we were only able to ship 25.8 million [masks] at P13.50 and that only lasted until November 2020,” Ferrer said. The balance, some 74.1 million masks, was later fulfilled by EMS for the price of P2.35 per unit after the firm was told by the government to match the lowest market price at the time. The local firm was supposed to make P1.3 billion from the contract. Its total sales were less than half that at P523 million, according to Ferrer.
Run, Sara, Run posters make appearance at DOLE aid payout | INQUIRER.NET – When the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) distributed cash aid in Isabela province, two things were easily noticeable—thousands of residents wearing apple green t-shirts and posters with the image of Davao Mayor Sara Duterte urging the President’s daughter to run for the highest office of the land. The events were for a DOLE program, called Tulong Panghanabuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged Displaced Workers (TUPAD), which was supposed to provide cash in exchange for work for those who lost their jobs during the pandemic. Reached for comment, the camp of Sara said it would “endorse” the matter to the DOLE. The DOLE, however, has not answered queries from INQUIRER.net about whether the rollout of TUPAD in venues decorated with Run, Sara, Run posters was just coincidence or part of the plan. Repeated attempts to inquire from Raul Francia, director of DOLE Information and Public Service, went unanswered. Provincial officials gave a short reply: “No comment.”
Hontiveros questions Duterte’s ‘direct engagement’ with Pharmally exec | Manila Bulletin – Senator Risa Hontiveros on Tuesday, Sept. 7 questioned President Duterte on his supposed “direct engagement” with an official of Pharmally International, the head agency of Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corp. which is now being investigated by the Senate blue ribbon committee. Hontiveros noted there seems to be a “special friendship” between Duterte and Huang Wen Lei, chairman of Pharmally International and who is now a fugitive in Taiwan. According to the senator, Duterte and Huang’s ties was featured in a 2017 article by Taiwan-based newspaper China Times. “May ibang special friendship na naman ba? Kasi noong 2019 lang nag-incorporate ang Pharmally sa Pilipinas (Is there another special friendship? Because it was only in 2019 that Pharmally got incorporated in the Philippines),” Hontiveros said prior to the continuation of the Senate blue ribbon committee’s hearing on the controversy surrounding the government’s procurement of overpriced PPEs from the company. “Pero nang nagka-COVID noong 2020 ay sa Pharmally agad ibinigay ang pinakamalaking kontrata. Ito bang ugnayan na ito ang dahilan kung bakit napakabilis ng transaksyon ng Pharmally sa gitna ng pandemya (When COVID hit us in 2020, they gave the biggest contract to Pharmally. Is this the reason why the government was able to easily transact with Pharmally amid the pandemic)?” Hontiveros asked. She said the China Times article stated that Huang and another shareholder of the company, Wang Mingliang, and other core executive, visited the Philippines and it was Duterte who made special arrangements. She said the article also noted that they all “met at the Davao Hall and invited the director of Drug Administration and the Deputy Minister of Health to attend the meeting.” The article also then said that the “closer cooperation between the two parties” would “create a win-win situation.” Hontiveros said the article is backed by a photo which shows the President together with Huang, Michael Yang, who is the chairman of the Philippine-based Full Win company. Yang is also said to have closed links to another fugitive Zheng Binqiang, the chairman of the China-based Full Win Group.
