Herbosa faces raps over P1.29 billion loan to UNICEF

MANILA, Philippines — Health Secretary Teodoro Herbosa is facing criminal charges over P1.29 billion in alleged unliquidated funds transferred in 2024 to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) to procure vaccines and essential drugs.

Filed before the Office of the Ombudsman, the complaint filed by “concerned employees” of the Department of Health claimed that the DOH released a cash advance of P1.29 billion to UNICEF from February to July 2024.

Despite the unliquidated funds, Herbosa allegedly initiated a new procurement request to purchase vaccines from UNICEF for an additional P524 million.

The complainants also claimed that Herbosa allowed the liquidation deadline to lapse without rendering any settlement of accounts.

Cash advances were misdeclared as advances to contractors, they said, noting that UNICEF is not a contractor, but a third-party international organization.

These should have been logged as “due from NGO/CSOs,” they added.

Herbosa did not make a “mere clerical error” in misrepresenting the cash advances as he “deliberately misclassified” them to mislead auditors and other regulatory bodies, they alleged.

Asked for comment, DOH spokesman Albert Domingo said they are waiting for the official service of the complaint before any comment or action “in accordance with due process and with highest respect to the authority of the ombudsman.”

Charges of graft and corruption, malversation of public funds through falsification of public documents and violation of the code of conduct for public officials were filed against Herbosa.

In a letter received on Monday by ombudsman officer-in-charge Mariflor Punzalan-Castillo, the complainants said they filed anonymously “out of concern for retaliation, but with a firm sense of duty to uphold the public trust.”

“The evidence is undeniable: funds were disbursed to UNICEF, goods were delivered and received by the DOH, liquidation was due and no liquidation was rendered,” the letter read.

Herbosa also allegedly committed “excessive and inordinate delays” in resolving protests, resulting in the delay of vaccines and medicines.

Complainants claimed that Herbosa allowed procurement protests to languish for up to 245 days without resolution, which was far beyond the seven-day deadline required by law.

Some protests were resolved, they said, but others were “indefinitely stalled.”

“This selectivity suggests manifest partiality and discrimination in favor of entrenched bidders. To be more precise, competitive suppliers were effectively edged out, unable to secure timely resolutions to their grievances,” the letter noted.

Citing a Commission on Audit observation memorandum, the letter said there were protests involving P1.2 billion worth of pneumococcal and polio vaccines, which remained unresolved as of June 11.

Protests by a certain firm were allegedly immediately resolved.

“These patterns raise legitimate and serious concerns that Herbosa’s conduct either favored certain bidders or punished others, in a manner grossly detrimental to fair competition and public welfare,” the complainants said.

“His omissions, when viewed in context, amount not only to gross negligence but to a calculated disregard for legal obligations to the detriment of public interest and fair procurement,” they added.