Ex-lawmaker warns of abuse in COVID vaccine purchase

By Joseph B.A. Marzan

 

A former congressman and vice governor warned Friday that proposals to allow local government units (LGU) to buy vaccines against the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) without public bidding might be prone to abuse.

Former Iloilo 5^th district congressman and Iloilo vice governor Rolex Suplico was referring to two bills pending in Congress – House Bill No. 8648, authored by House Speaker Lord Allan Jay Velasco (Marinduque-Lone), House Majority Leader Ferdinand Martin Romualdez (Leyte-1st), and House Minority Leader Joseph Stephen Paduano (Abang Lingkod Partylist); and Senate Bill No. 2042 introduced by Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri.

Both bills seek to expedite LGUs’ procurement of COVID-19 vaccine by legislating exemptions to the provisions of Republic Act Nos. 9184 (Government Procurement Reform Act) and 7160 (Local Government Code of 1991) and Presidential Decree No. 1445 (Government Auditing Code of the Philippines)

The bills cited the state of emergency due to Covid-19 declared by President Rodrigo Duterte via Proclamation No. 929, and the Emergency Use Authorizations (EUA) granted by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to some vaccines.

As of this writing, the FDA has issued only two EUAs for COVID-19 vaccines: the BNT162b2 by German biotechnology company BioNTech and American pharmaceutical company Pfizer on January 14, and AZD1222 by British-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca.

LGUs around the country have already signed agreements with the national government and vaccine makers in January.

In Western Visayas, Bacolod City, Iloilo City, and Iloilo province have inked deals for the AZD1222 vaccine.

Suplico, who is also a Daily Guardian columnist, warned of possible corruption if LGUs were to be allowed to buy the vaccines on their own, especially that this might be used as partisan campaign tools for the 2022 national and local elections.

“The problem there is that they are skipping the requirement of public bidding which is in our procurement law. For me, if we talk about the wisdom of those proposals, those are somewhat disadvantageous to the people. Why? It would be difficult to allow it without public bidding, there might be ‘kickback’. More so, the elections are near,” Suplico told Daily Guardian on Air Friday.

Suplico added that the Department of Health (DOH) has better capacity to determine vaccine safety and handling procedures than LGUs.

“The DOH has the capacity to look at the vaccines to be procured and state that it would be for the betterment of all. It would be difficult for the mayor and the municipal health officer to determine that. They don’t have the capacity for that. We have to diminish in the minds of the people that there is kickback in the procurement of the vaccines,” he added.

 

STORAGE

Suplico also suggested that it would be disadvantageous for LGUs to procure their own vaccines, since these require cold storage facilities.

BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine’s minimum temperature requirement is at -70 degrees Celsius, while the AstraZeneca vaccine can be stored at 2 to 8 degrees Celsius.

“They would have to provide for themselves. But what could happen is that they procure [vaccines] on their own, and the cold chain storage could be by the national government. So, you can’t do anything about that. The infrastructure must be there, and not that you would buy the vaccines and then rely on the national government,” he said.

LGUs may also be held liable for the viability of the vaccines instead of the national government, citing a previous procurement instance where development of school buildings were transferred to the Department of Education and school principals were made to bear the brunt and some even became contractors.

“I remember before, the school building program was given to the Department of Education, and many principals faced problems because they don’t have the experience for that. The school building programs of the national government, the funds are there with the Department of Education but should be implemented by the Department of Public Works and Highways,” he stated.

Suplico said that it would be better for the DOH to procure the vaccines on behalf of all LGUs, which can transfer funds to them.

“The best move is to allow the DOH to procure on behalf of everyone, and they can allocate. If the local government has money, for example, if the province of Iloilo has money, they can just tell the DOH that they have money and they can buy that, as an additional. That is allowed. They can just add their money and give it to the national government, specifically allocating for vaccines for the province,” he said.