LAWMAKERS on Tuesday urged the national government to allow local government units (LGUs) to directly procure their Covid-19 vaccine from manufacturers.
Deputy Speaker Rufus Rodriguez said more than 30 provinces and cities have already allocated funds for buying jabs approved by the Food and Drug Administration, with the cities of Makati, Quezon and Taguig setting aside P1 billion each.
He added that even small provinces like Biliran and Eastern Samar are raring to procure vaccine with allocations of P100 million and P500 million, respectively.
His appeal is contained in House Resolution 1460, which followed a similar measure calling for permitting private companies to buy their own vaccine to fight the infectious new coronavirus.
Rodriguez’s call came a day after a marathon Committee of the Whole hearing at the Senate dwelt at length on a policy issue: why is the national government seemingly controlling initiatives by local government units and private firms to acquire vaccines for their respective constituencies? Senators said this could hasten the vaccine rollout and thus save more lives. At the same time, the national government with its scarce resources gets a fiscal boost, as LGUs and private business shoulder a big part of the vaccination costs.
In filing his resolution, Rodriguez invoked the constitutional right to health of every Filipinos in making the twin pleas.
According to him, LGUs throughout the country should be allowed to import vaccine for their constituents because the national government would take care of the vaccination of only 30 to 50 percent of the country’s population.
Rodriguez noted that these LGUs and private companies intend to give the vaccine free to their constituents and employees.
“The government’s priority right now should be having as many Filipinos as possible vaccinated in order to defeat the Covid-19
pandemic, get the economy on the road to recovery and return the nation to pre-2020 normality,” he stressed.
Allowing LGUs and private companies to buy their own vaccine will greatly help the national government attain its goal of herd immunity, which calls for inoculating at least 80 percent of the population, he added.
Though the FDA has yet to give its go-ahead to the use of any vaccine, many LGUs have already negotiated with vaccine producers for their supply. They have been admonished by the national government, however, to follow a tripartite agreement template involving the NG, the LGUs and the vaccine makers.
To achieve herd immunity faster, BHW Rep. Angelica Natasha Co also said the national government must approve parallel Covid-19 vaccine purchases and immunization by the business, church, and local government sectors.
“If IATF keeps on insisting all vaccine purchases will be done by the national government alone, there will be congestion in the purchasing pipeline and there will be long unnecessary delays up ahead,” she said. “Parallel Covid-19 purchases and vaccination means more vaccines available sooner and more people getting inoculated faster,” she added.
If the IATF insists on limiting vaccine access to government-to-government purchases by the national government only, the congresswoman said herd immunity for the 70 percent to 90 percent of the 110 million Filipinos will not be achieved.
“It is simple math. The current IATF way means only 20 percent of Filipinos get vaccinated in 5 years. But if we have parallel purchases and vaccination, we can achieve herd immunity in 2 years,” she said.
“The right target for achieving herd immunity is April 2022 at the latest, a month before the May 2022 national and location elections,” she added.
‘Shot in the dark’
Senate Minority Leader Frank Drilon described as a shot in the dark the administration’s anti-Coronavirus vaccine plan targetting to inoculate 70 million Filipinos.
Citing “stumbling blocks” likely to derail government efforts to contain the deadly virus, Drilon said on Tuesday the target to secure 148 million doses of vaccines to inoculate 70 million Filipinos by end of 2021 is “simply difficult to achieve.”
This even as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had assured its readiness to issue an Emergency Use Authorization “within the week” to facilitate the transaction to deliver 148 million doses of the anti-Covid vaccine.
“Parang suntok sa buwan ang vaccination program lalo na ’yung sinasabi nila na 148 million doses within the year,” the opposition senator said, noting that “the arrival of the vaccines is not even definite.”
Drilon added: “How can they say that they will be able to purchase 148 million doses by the end of 2021 when up to now, we haven’t given any Emergency Use Authorization [EUA] to any vaccine and we have not been able to raise, through loans, all the needed amount for the purchase of the vaccines?”
He remained unconvinced as the FDA had affirmed its readiness to “issue an EUA within the week.”
“I am not reassured in the slightest by what I heard,” said Drilon, referring to replies he got from officials who attended Monday’s Committee of the Whole hearing on the national vaccine road map.
While acknowledging “the plan is good on paper,” Drilon lamented that “the plan is filled with uncertainties and it leaves too much to chance.”
He pointed out that the Duterte administration’s target of securing 148 million doses within the year is “simply difficult to achieve,” given vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez’s remark that 80 percent of global supply has already been procured by rich countries.
“If only the government was able to make advanced purchases last year, similar to other low- and -middle-income countries such as Indonesia and Brazil, maybe we would have a better chance of securing these 148 million doses of vaccines this year,” he added.
At the same time, Drilon also noted that “the funding is not even guaranteed at this point as the government has not fully secured the necessary loans to fund the P70 billion in the unprogrammed fund for the procurement of Covid-19 vaccines.”
The administration earlier allotted P82.5 billion to buy vaccines but only P12.5 billion was included in the programmed appropriation, of which P2.5 billion will come from the General Appropriations Act with another P10 billion under Bayanihan 2.
Drilon likened the funding for Covid-19 vaccine to an unfunded check without a definite source of funds.
He said that if the Duterte administration wants to achieve its target of inoculating 70 million Filipinos this year, it should “allow local governments and the private sector to negotiate directly with the pharmaceutical companies for the purchase of vaccines” having been given “emergency use authorization.”