HEALTH and Palace officials on Sunday practically admitted there are suggestions to bar certain businesses—tobacco, liquor and infant formula—from procuring Covid-19 vaccines, but insisted the controversial provisions are still being discussed among stakeholders.
Protests, mostly from lawmakers, greeted revelations at the weekend that the purported draft implementing rules and regulations drawn up by the National Task Force Against Covid-19 and the Department of Health for Republic Act 11525 has at least two provisions barring these companies from the national vaccination campaign, on account of public health policy.
A DOH statement shared by Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said authorities were “still in the process of reconciling the proposed provisions with other existing laws and guidelines.”
Asked by reporters, presidential spokesman Harry Roque said, in Filipino, “I have heard of that, but that is still under study.” He volunteered that this suggested ban arose from a public health policy banning government from accepting donations from manufacturers of liquor, tobacco and infant formula.
That angle could put government on the spot, since several such big manufacturers were among the first to donate to the government’s Covid response since last year.
Meanwhile, Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez denied there is already a draft order barring tobacco and other companies from partnering with government on procurement of Covid-19 vaccines.
“Not true,” Dominguez said when asked about the supposed order.
Sen. Imee Marcos had said the draft about to be pitched by the National Task Force (NTF) against Covid-19 and the Department of Health (DOH) to President Duterte for approval, shuts out “entire industries” from the vaccination campaign, at a time when government badly needs private sector help to ramp up inoculation while Covid cases surge. The case log peaked at 7,999 on Saturday.
Besides Marcos, Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro L. Locsin Jr. had also flagged the draft order, noting bad policy in blocking private business from pitching in the vaccine drive.
‘Legislation by IRR’
ON Sunday, Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto accused the NTF and DOH of “legislation by IRR” and Minority Leader Franklin M. Drilon warned them the order, if issued, would be “illegal and unauthorized.”
Recto said the transcript of the 12-hour marathon deliberations on RA 11525 shows Congress never had this intention to block certain businesses from the national inoculation campaign.
Sought for reaction, Health Secretary Duque III said the national government commits to provide all Filipinos equitable access to Covid-19 vaccines.
Duque forwarded to BusinessMirror the statement of the DOH in response to the issue.
“The Department of Health was made aware of the circulation of an unofficial draft DOH Administrative Order outlining some selected sections of the draft Implementing Rules and Regulation (IRR) of Republic Act No. 11525 or the Covid-19 Vaccination Law,” the statement read.
In providing “equitable access” to the vaccines, the prioritization criteria and list approved by the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases shall be followed, it added.
“The development of the IRR is guided by the principles of equal respect, national equity and legitimacy, found in the WHO SAGE Values Framework. Any provisions that may be perceived to discriminate against any sector of the population from accessing Covid-19 vaccines is not considered in any policy, guideline, protocol that shall be issued by this government.”
The DOH stressed that the contents of the draft IRR were based on recommendations from different stakeholders.
“The DOH together with the government agencies composing the Vaccine Cluster of the National Task Force against Covid-19, as provided for by the law, are still in the process of reconciling the proposed provisions with other existing laws and guidelines,” it added.
“The National Government commits to honor the multiparty agreement among DOH, NTF, vaccine manufacturers, and other procuring entities like the private companies and LGUs. All comments and recommendations from different stakeholders are still welcome until the finalization and approval of the IRR,” the DOH reiterated.
Usurpers
Recto rued that the DOH and NTF were usurping congressional functions in effectively “legislating” through issuance of an IRR to carry out the government’s nationwide Covid-19 vaccine project.
Recto warned them “this is legislation by IRR, a bad habit by bureaucrats who imagine themselves as the third chamber of Congress.”
Recto reminded them that “no such provision exists in the Covid-19 Vaccination Program Act of 2021 or RA 11525,” referring to the barring of businesses engaged in the manufacture of liquor, tobacco or infant formula milk.
Recto zeroed in on two phrases in the draft section earlier cited by Senator Marcos, saying it will “sabotage” the public-private vaccination partnership.
“One is that any private entity should not be ‘in any way related’ to the tobacco industry,” he said, noting: “So this can be read that a pharmaceutical company that makes or procures vaccines, half of which it shall donate to the government, cannot do so simply because it has breastmilk substitutes in its product catalog.”
As another tricky example, he asked: “Also, will an airline company with an interlocking directorship with a tobacco company be likewise banned under that provision?” in apparent refence to Philippine Airlines of the Lucio Tan Group, which also has a stake in Philip Morris-Fortune Tobacco Corp.
He listed a “second questionable phrase” that the ban covers companies dealing with “other products in conflict with public health.”
“But the list in the government almanac of unhealthy products whose consumption is punished by a tax is long. It includes soda, sugared products and alcohol,” he said, asking: “So the company making Ginebra is disqualified despite its donation of a gazillion liters of disinfectant alcohol to hospitals?”
And, “under the proposed “relationship rule,” its parent company, San Miguel—despite donating billions of pesos to the pandemic fight—will be disqualified from buying vaccines it plans to give to its workers and to the government for free, he said.
Recto noted the Gokongweis are into sugared drinks, wondering if this “will put them under the negative list?’
Excise taxes
“What is wrong with these people in the DOH and NTF that they will not allow private wealth to be used for public welfare?” the Senate President Pro Tempore wanted to know.
He pointed out the sin tax paid by sweetened beverages was P38.6 billion in 2019, and P28.6 billion in 2020; adding that for alcohol, it was P77 billion in 2019, and P62 billion in 2020. Tobacco was P147 billion in 2019, and P139 billion in 2020.
“If these merchants of sin would like to plow back their profits in the form of vaccines, half for their workers and half for the people, why would a fumbling government illegalize such an offer of help?” asked Recto.
Senate Minority Leader Drilon warned DOH that barring several companies from procuring vaccines for their employees is patently “illegal and unauthorized” and can expose them to legal liabilities.
“I am deeply disturbed by this report. If indeed such a draft administrative order exists, that is a clear violation of the COVID-19 Vaccination Act of 2021. Such a policy is discriminatory and morally unacceptable. The DOH does not have the authority to do that,” Drilon said in a statement on Sunday.
The alleged draft administrative order provides that “the NTF, together with the DOH shall review the requests of private entities to procure vaccines to ensure that private entities who will be part of the agreement are not in any way related to the tobacco industry, products covered under EO 51 series of 1986 or the “national Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes, breastmilk Supplement and Other Related Products” or other industries in conflict with public health.”
“It will be unlawful for the DOH and the National Task Force (NTF) Against COVID-19 to do that. Republic Act 11525 allows private entities to procure COVID-19 vaccines in cooperation with the DOH. The law does not discriminate against or exclude companies based on their products, services or lines of business. The supposed administrative order, therefore, is discriminatory and it would go beyond the law and would constitute an actionable wrong,” said the former justice secretary.
RA 11525 or the Covid-19 Vaccination Act of 2021 was passed by Congress in February to aid the speedy vaccination program against Covid-19.
House leaders outraged
House leaders were similarly angered by the notion that authorities were even considering such a discriminatory ban on businesses.
House Deputy Minority Leader and Marikina City Rep. Stella Quimbo asked DOH not to be too hasty in rejecting private sector participation, which can deliver the much-needed push for a broader vaccination roll-out.
According to Quimbo, the P72.5 billion set aside for vaccines in the national budget and P10 billion under the Bayanihan 2 is not enough to inoculate 70 million Filipinos.
“At a budget of P2,000 per head, we need at least P140 billion to achieve the vaccine targets. Donations from private firms engaged in legitimate business should be welcomed,” Quimbo said.
Excluding tobacco, milk and other companies from participating in the program also means denying their employees the chance to be inoculated sooner rather than later.
“We are fortunate that we have a proactive private sector that has expressed willingness to co-finance the vaccine program and will, in effect, protect as many Filipinos as possible. The proposed policy of preventing companies that are deemed to be engaged in activities that are contrary to public health reflects a misappreciation by its proponents of the public health mandate of the DOH during a pandemic,” Quimbo added.
House Ways and Means panel chairman Joey Sarte Salceda said the DOH draft order practically locks out the cash-strapped government from receiving any form of assistance from the private sector.
Rep. Ron Salo of Kabayan Party-list said the proposed order is discriminatory against the people whose livelihood depends on these industries.
Muntinlupa City Rep. Ruffy Biazon said instead of banning firms related to the “barred” industries, DOH “should just make it conditional that the vaccines will not be used in any way to directly or indirectly promote or distribute products of those industries.”
Rep. Michael Defensor (Anakalusugan) said: “Congress never meant to discriminate against any industry when we passed the law establishing the Covid-19 vaccination program, precisely because we recognize that government needs the help of the entire private corporate sector in quickly immunizing as many Filipinos as possible.”