(Eagle News)–Senator Edgardo Angara on Thursday, Aug. 1, said the Department of Health should explain what he said was the overstocking of medicines worth billions of pesos in its warehouses.
In a statement, Angara said close to P20 billion worth of drugs and medicine are there, as cited by the Commission on Audit in its 2018 report on the agency.
Angara said the wastage “is becoming like dengue, it has become an annual thing.”
“And to think, many Filipinos for lack of money can’t buy medicine or are undermedicating themselves. And then they read reports about drugs in some government warehouses going to waste,” Angara said.
He said the DOH “perennial problem” with “undistributed expired drugs” will be a “major point of interest” in the upcoming Senate hearings on the proposed 2020 budget of the agency.
Angara is the chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance.
He said he has also filed a resolution calling for an inquiry into the overstocking.
“Maghanda na sila (DOH officials) ng prescriptions. Diagnose the problem and come up with solutions. Kung constipated ang drug distribution system, then what is the laxative?” he said.
“Is it a question of overprescription or the prescription of the wrong drugs? Ang national order form ba based on needs or supplier-driven? Saan ba ang bara sa distribution?” he asked.
