By Genalyn Kabiling

President Duterte has taken “full responsibility” for ordering the swift procurement of medical supplies in the early days of the government’s battle against the coronavirus outbreak.

In his televised public address late Monday night, the President admitted he ordered Health Secretary Francisco Duque III to hasten the purchase of supplies needed for the coronavirus response regardless of the cost.

Duterte explained that he was “boxed in a corner” as the country was battling the spread of the pandemic.

“I would listen to Secretary Duque. But I gave him the instruction and I admit it in public now, it’s being… Sabi ko sa kanya (I told him), ‘Do everything you can.’ Sabi niya (He said), ‘There’s so many proposition.’ ‘I do not care. If it’s not cheap, if it is expensive, go — just go ahead and do something about it kasi ipit na tayo dito (because we’re caught here).’ And those were the early days. I remember ‘yung ‘ipit akong (when we were caught) …’ I was boxed in a corner,” he said in his televised public address late Monday.

“Gusto ko lang malaman ng sambayanang Pilipino na I take full responsibility, na ang utos ko na mag — dalian mo ( I want the Filipino nation to know that I take full responsibility, that my order to him was to act quickly),” he added.

Duterte recalled that it did not matter to him how the funds for the medical supplies would be sourced. “Wala akong pakialam kung saan ka magkuha, magnakaw ka (I don’t care where you get it, steal it) and I remember saying it. I do not care whether you go and steal, borrow, or kill a person to get what needs to be done,” he added.

Sen. Panfilo Lacson earlier questioned the government’s supposedly overpriced purchase of medical supplies in a Senate hearing. Lacson claimed that the health products obtained by the government were more expensive compared to those bought by the private sector.

In the same meeting, the President told the National Bureau of Investigation to look “very carefully” into the allegedly overpriced testing kits of a local supplier. “We will act accordingly,” he added.