SENATORS, sitting as a Committee of the Whole, on Monday took turns grilling administration officials in a marathon hearing amid a raging controversy on whether the government had a coherent national Covid vaccine roadmap.
For much of the hearing, senators’ concerns focused on a serious question of policy: why is the national government seemingly controlling initiatives by local government units and private firms to acquire vaccines for their respective constituencies, when this could speed up the process and save more lives and boost the national government’s scarce resources, as the LGUs and private business will shell out their funds?
The policy question was summed up by Minority Leader Franklin M. Drilon after Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto grilled health regulators at length on their strict rules for acquiring the vaccines, even though the Philippines has already been flagged among the laggards in rolling out a Covid-19 immunization program, which in turn is seen to hinder economic recovery.
On Friday, a global think tank said while most Asia Pacific countries are expected to regain their lost output by 2021, the Philippines is an exception as the country still grapples to make a concrete plan on vaccine procurement and fiscal stimulus remains relatively minute.
“The region is working to obtain sufficient vaccine supplies. While behind North America and Europe, most of the larger Asia Pacific countries have secured enough doses at this point to vaccinate roughly 75 percent of their populations. An important exception is the Philippines, which has made little progress so far,” Moody’s Analytics said.
In its most recent assessment of the region’s economic dynamics, Moody’s Analytics said the Philippines will be the last country in the Asia Pacific to regain its gross domestic product (GDP) growth level to pre-Covid levels.
Drilon, in questions thrown at Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, Secretary Vince Dizon and Food and Drug Administration chief Eric Domingo, wondered aloud why, if the regulators can issue emergency use authorization (EUA) for certain vaccines, can it not relax the rules governing purchase of such vaccines by LGUs and private sectors? Drilon said the EUA constitutes a “prima facie finding of safety” by health regulators, and asked why the process of acquiring these can’t be liberalized to apply to non-NG parties.
The rule as is “gives birth to a virtual monopoly” by the national government, which contradicts the “whole of nation” approach and defies logic and real concern for public safety, Drilon added.
Besides Recto, those who weighed in with similar views on the policy issue raised by Drilon were Sens. Cynthia Villar, Imee Marcos and Risa Hontiveros. Sen. Francis Tolentino noted, meanwhile, that the so-called “rule” that binds the FDA and forces regulators to limit the acquisition of vaccines by non-national government parties was not in the original FDA law, but was only crafted during the pandemic.
FDA chief Domingo explained that the EUA had to be inserted into the pandemic regulators’ playbook because without it, none of the vaccines for Covid-19, being novel products, had a certificate of product registration (CPR).
Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri pointed out that he caused an insertion of a proviso in the Bayanihan to Recover As One Act (Bayanihan2) precisely stressing that nothing in the law should prohibit private research and selling vaccine among responsible parties, given the urgency of the Covid-19 crisis, with cases steadily piling up.
For her part, Marcos urged the national government to consider well the LGUs situation, as they needed to take care of their constituents urgently, and were willing to shell out the funds for vaccines. She said governors have been requesting authority to sign on agreements in order to facilitate the delivery of vaccines.
The NG, under guidance laid down by national chief implementer and vaccine czar Carlito Galvez, had insisted on having a tripartite agreement involving the NG, LGUs and the vaccine makers for every purchase deal; and Duque warned LGUs not to unilaterally forge purchase agreements on their own.
Priority groups
Earlier in the hearing, senators sought to ensure, among others, that “essential workers” were given priority in the early stage of the implementation of the National Covid-19 Vaccination Program.
In filing Senate Resolution 598 paving the way for the inquiry, Senator Joel Villanueva acknowledged that the issue on who would be given priority was equally controversial as the choice of where to source the vaccine.
For his part, Zubiri asserted that what is more important is to give the people a choice and not be limited to just one brand of vaccine, citing the uncertainty of vaccine supply yet to be delivered from abroad.
Senator Sherwin Gatchalian also sought to “get details of the February 3 delivery” but was disappointed when provided with scant details that the Covid vaccine “of limited quantity was expected to be delivered this month.” At the same time, Hontiveros aired concerns that the lack of details “could be a major source of misallocation and confusion.”
This, even as the senator acknowledged that rich countries “as we speak, are already vaccinating, including neighboring Asian countries.” She added: “Filipinos residing in Massachusetts, Houston, Canada, and UK were already vaccinated… they have been vaccinated, even those who are not medical frontliners. And of course, especially our countrymen who are medical frontliners in America.”
Image credits: Voltaire F. Domingo/Henzberg Austria/Senate PRIB