Press Release
July 3, 2018

Senator Ejercito sets to grill Garin on P8.1 billion Brgy. Health Stations

SENATOR JV EJERCITO, chairman of the Senate Committee on Health and Demography, is set to grill tomorrow (July 4) former Department of Health (DOH) Secretary Janette Garin regarding the alleged scam in the implementation of the P8.1 billion Barangay Health Stations (BHS) project.

Garin's "accuser," current Health Secretary Francisco Duque III has also confirmed his attendance to the panel's hearing to be held at the Sen. Tañada Room, Senate building. It would start at 10 a.m.

"The 'ghost' of the skeleton in the closet of the DOH under Secretary Garin is haunting us. In my investigation, Secretary Garin will have a lot of explaining to do regarding the alleged P8.1 billion Barangay Health Stations project," Ejercito said in a statement.

Garin is already facing corruption complaint for allegedly diverting P10.6 billion funds to construct rural health units without prior approval of PhilHealth Board of Directors. The funds were originally intended for the PhilHealth premiums of senior citizens for calendar year 2015.

"Nakakasama talaga ng loob dahil marami ang namamatay na lang dahil walang pampagamot, 'tapos pinaglaruan at winaldas lang pala ang malaking pondo para sa kalusugan noong nakaraang administrasyon. Kailangang may managot dito kung mapapatunayang totoo," he said. The BHS project, implemented by the DOH when Garin was the secretary, was aimed at constructing 5,700 school-based rural health units to ensure barangays have access to primary health care.

J-Bros Construction, the contractor of the project, last March billed the DOH amounting to P2.9 billion for the 429 barangay health sites which it claimed had already been completed.

However, the DOH found out that only 270 barangay health stations were completed. Of these, only 8 had validated complete documents.

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