Quezon City belies overpricing of COVID-19 relief packs

MANILA, Philippines — The Quezon City government on Saturday belied another allegation of overpricing raised by mayoralty candidate and Anakalusugan Rep. Mike Defensor.

In a press briefing, city legal head Niño Casimiro described as an old tactic Defensor’s latest claim that the city purchased overpriced food packs.

“In the past few months, Defensor has nitpicked bits and pieces of QC’s 2020 COA (Commission on Audit) report and has made sensationalized accusations without fully disclosing the full context,” Casimiro said.

“The commission itself finally issued a very clear statement that there were absolutely no findings of irregularity during that year. As a double black eye, the COA even awarded the city with the highest audit rating it has ever received throughout its history,” he added.

Defensor’s latest allegation involved the supposed procurement of rice amounting to P1,000 per sack.

But Casimiro noted that the document cited by the lawmaker was part of an aggregated bid, which also included other items.

“I’m sure that the good congressman is very familiar with the concept of a ‘lot bid,’ which is when items are grouped together to form one complete lot, and awarded as one contract,” he said.

“The cost of the individual items are therefore irrelevant, as it is only the final, total price of the entire contract that should be considered. In this case, the winning bidder submitted the lowest aggregate cost, well below the Approved Budget for Contract, or ABC,” Casimiro added.

The city legal officer even noted one item in the list, which showed that the cost of noodles were only P100 per box of 72 packs, or less than P2 per piece.

Margie Santos, head of the city’s bids and awards committee on goods and service, further explained that it is against regulations for the city to interfere with how a particular supplier presents their costing per individual item, for as long as all listed items are complete and the total contract cost still remains the lowest.

“The simplest and best analogy is this: you asked two people to offer you a specific basket of groceries, including a set quantity of rice, noodles, sausages, vegetables, and other items. Both came back with exactly the same basket, but one was priced P500, while the other P400,” she said.

“After buying the P400 basket, would it matter what the individual price of each item was? Suppliers have their own pricing strategies, and we cannot interfere with that. What’s important is that the city paid the lowest price, equal to or below the ABC, and got the requirement we needed,” Santos added.