By MANILA, Philippines — Senator Raffy Tulfo on Wednesday accused the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of favoring and accepting bribes from multinational pharmaceutical companies, resulting in the continued sale of unregistered products and shutdown of smaller pharmaceutical firms.
Tulfo made the pronouncement during a Senate panel hearing on the proposed budget of the Department of Health for 2026, During the hearing, Tulfo questioned why despite continuously releasing advisories and warnings on harmful medical products, the FDA does not seem to actually enforce it.
FDA Director General Paolo Teston, for his part, said that the advisories already include an order for law enforcement agencies to prevent such products’ sale, adding that the FDA does not have enough capacity to do it by itself as it only has 890 plantilla and 300 contract of service personnel.
