Herbosa faces graft complaint as P1.5B worth of medicines, vaccines ‘wasted’

MANILA, Philippines – A group of “concerned Department of Health personnel” claimed that the DOH wasted medicines and vaccines worth P1.5 billion as they filed a graft complaint before the Office of the Ombudsman on Tuesday, March 31.

The group filed the complaint anonymously “due to fear of reprisals” from DOH officials, including Health Secretary Teodoro Herbosa, who is among the respondents named.

Aside from Herbosa, there are 16 other respondents:

• Health Undersecretary Randy Escolango
• Health Undersecretary Gloria Balboa
• David Masiado – OIC-Director, High Burden Infectious Diseases Prevention and Control Division
• Anna Marie Celina Garfin – Director IV
• Adriano Suba-an – Director IV, Population Health and Non-Communicable Diseases
• Cherylle Gavino – Director III, Mental Health Division (MHD)
• Maria Joyce Ducusin – Division Chief, Children’s Health and Development Division
• Hardy Dumawing – Program Manager, Family Planning
• Carmela Granada – Division Chief, MHD
• Jan Derek Junio – Program Manager, National HIV/AIDS and STI Prevention and Control Program
• Carmina Paz Vera – Program Manager, National Immunization Program
• Jessa Joy Malipot and Mark Anthony Dizon – Technical officers for Procurement Management within the MHD
• Liezl Fernandez – Technical staff for Budget and Procurement for the Other Infectious Diseases Prevention, Control, and Elimination Division
• Mary Grace Bautista and Jennifer Rabino – Management and Administrative Support Unit

The concerned DOH personnel alleged that high-value commodities including contraceptives and mental health-related medicine such as antipsychotics and anticonvulsants worth P68 million had expired from December 2025 to March 2026 inside their national warehouse.

Last February, a total of 240,000 ampoules of psychiatric injectables also expired, adding another P24 million in losses.

These follow the DOH’s National Inventory Report in January stating that around P1.3 billion worth of vaccines were left undelivered. Regional warehouses also reported expired tuberculosis and measles vaccines.

The complainants said that the DOH officials “received formal, written warnings of the magnitude of the impending loss.” But instead of authorizing emergency distribution of near-expiry medicines, they allegedly chose to rush the disposal of these medicines “and hide the evidence from media scrutiny.”

The complaint cited internal communications from the Office of the Secretary, with one message purportedly saying, “Pag ito nlaman (sic) ng media, patay na naman.” (If the media finds out about this, we’re dead.)

“The respondents did not merely commit a clerical error; they demonstrated a ‘conscious indifference to consequences’ by allowing P1.5 billion in resources to transition from life-saving medicine into ‘dead stock,'” the complaint read.

“Their conduct proves that they viewed the P1.5 billion in taxpayer-funded medicine as a political liability to be buried and hidden as they did in the past.”

The complainants want Herbosa and the other respondents placed under preventive suspension, and ultimately dismissed from service for allegedly violating Republic Act No. 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.

Not the first complaint

Herbosa faces a separate graft complaint involving P1.8 billion worth of mobile clinics.

The complaint, also from an anonymous group of DOH employees, was filed with the Ombudsman on March 6. It claimed that Herbosa, Health Undersecretary Glenn Mathew Baggao, and two aides rigged the procurement of mobile primary care facilities by interfering to match the specifications of a preferred supplier.

Despite receiving reports of underperforming mobile clinics that were already deployed, Herbosa allegedly pushed for the new procurement and directed employees to follow instructions from his office instead of the technical teams.

Health Undersecretary Albert Domingo, spokesperson of the DOH, told media on Tuesday that these “series of persistently anonymous complaints” have yet to reach the department.

“Out of respect for due process and the work of the Ombudsman, we await the service of official copies,” he said. – Rappler.com