People can submit complaints with proof about the alleged corruption in the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Department of Health (DOH) said.
“The Food and Drug Administration, being an office under the Office of the Secretary of Health, so we are open to these kinds of issues being thrown at us,” DOH officer-in-charge Maria Rosario Vergeire said during a media briefing.
“But we request also that this pharmaceutical company really have evidences to provide. Please submit it to the Office of the Secretary of Health,” Vergeire added.
The DOH OIC was replying to the claims of Senator Raffy Tulfo about the alleged corruption in the regulatory body.
Tulfo cited a complaint from a pharmaceutical company during the Senate deliberations on the proposed 2023 budget of the DOH, stating that the company waited for three years for its certificate of product registration renewal.
Tulfo said he learned that the “asking price” for each product runs in the millions.
However, Vergeire said that proof is necessary to know what to do.
“So that we can be able to investigate it at once and we can address it and provide appropriate measures against those who are in violation,” she said. “Hangga’t hindi natin nakikita ang ebidensya, hindi tayo makapagbigay ng judgement on this.”
— Ronald Espartinez