Duterte authorizes advance Covid-19 vaccine payments

By Glazyl Y. Masculino

 

BACOLOD City – League of Cities of the Philippines (LCP) national president and Bacolod Mayor Evelio Leonardia thanked President Rodrigo Duterte for acting on their appeal to issue an executive order to authorize mayors to make advance payments for the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) vaccines contracted by city governments.

On February 18, Duterte signed Presidential Memorandum No. 51 “granting authority to local government units (LGUs) to make advance payments for the procurement of Covid-19 vaccines.”

The League took initiatives in encouraging cities to procure their vaccines to ensure that the target population is vaccinated.

“This is definitely a giant leap towards accelerating the implementation of our local vaccination programs,” Leonardia said.

Leonardia also said that this has a direct impact, especially to cities which had earlier signed the Multilateral Agreement with the Department of Health (DOH), National Task Force Against Covid-19, and AstraZeneca.

“But this will, more importantly, benefit all LGUs similarly situated,” he added.

Bacolod City is among the top five direct beneficiaries along with Davao, Quezon, Makati and Manila for having the biggest volume of allocated vaccine supply.

Leonardia said the city government is preparing the advance payment of 20%, as per contract, of the total cost of 650,000 doses of vaccines it will procure from AstraZeneca.

“We make sure the city will settle the payment before the deadline to ensure that we get the delivery of the vaccines starting the 3rd quarter of this year,” the mayor added.