Bare Truth by Rose de la Cruz
Bare Truth

Govt. stalls private sector’s vaccination program

Mar 24, 2021, 3:40 AM
Rose De La Cruz

Rose De La Cruz

Writer/Columnist

Just when private companies, including conglomerates, were putting into motion their vaccine rollout programs for their employees to revive their business and ensure sustainable operations, government comes up with yet another hurdle: a tripartite agreement involving the national government, the private sector, and the pharmaceutical company that COVID-19 vaccines are not to be treated as commercial products even if issued an emergency use authorization.

The private companies—responding to the clamor in November 2020 of Presidential Adviser for Entrepreneurship Joey Conception “to help bring vaccines into the country, particularly 2.6 million doses from AstraZeneca, by the second quarter of 2021—is now being snagged by this tripartite agreement requirement and the subsequent regulations that the Department of Health is crafting requiring that for every dose of vaccine imported by private companies and the LGUS, the national government will be given a share of donated vaccines.

The companies agreed to “donate” half their purchases of the vaccines to the government so that healthcare worker could be inoculated. A businessman told Rappler recently that those who were convened by Concepcion understood that vaccine purchases had to go through the national government to ensure an equitable rollout.

Pursuant to RA 11525 or the “COVID-19 Vaccination Program Act of 2021”, recently passed by the Senate and lower house, the tripartite agreement is needed because:(1) manufacturers of available COVID-19 vaccines require that indemnification be covered by the national government before finalizing any procurement deals, (2) it is the National Government that will shoulder the cost of adverse effects, and (3) available vaccines are only provided EUA, which means that said vaccines cannot be sold commercially, and therefore administration must be aligned with the prioritization framework employed by the National Government.

Where’s the plan

The private sector, in agreeing to do their own vaccine importation, said only a massive vaccination program will bring shoppers back to the malls and revive the ailing economy. They said they were given assurances that DoH would handle the end-to-end process – from vaccines arrival to the vaccination of their employees—only to find out that they would have to team up with a service provider, particularly Zuellig for their vaccine rollout. This meant that DoH would have no role at all in their rollout, they confided.

“We were told to trust the DoH and we were assured of a plan. We negotiated for the vaccines last November but until now we do not have them because the DoH does not have a plan, they complained.

The private sector is now urging the Duterte administration to let them have their own rollout program. “Businesses should be allowed to import vaccines directly and without restrictions or conditions so we can move more quickly and effectively,” said president Benedicto Yujuico of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Aileen Espina of the Healthcare Professional Alliance Against COVID-19 warned that private sector must work with government in procuring vaccines as the doses are only under EUA and are covered by an indemnification fund. The indemnification agreement is between countries and the pharma company understands and absorbs the risk of potential side effects of the vaccine.

DOH AO opposed

Several lawmakers were alarmed by a supposed draft administrative order barring several companies “in conflict with public health” from procuring COVID-19 vaccines, with Sen. Franklin Drilon saying the alleged attempt to impose the ban is “illegal and unauthorized. 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 (Department of Health) does not have the authority to do that,” Drilon said last Sunday.

The supposed draft AO states that the National Task Force Against COVID-19 (NTF) and the DOH will be tasked to “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, producers and marketers of breastmilk substitutes, breastmilk supplement and other related products’ or other industries in conflict with public health.”

For the DOH and the NTF to do this is “unlawful,” according to Drilon, a former Justice secretary citing that RA 11525 (COVID Vaccination program) 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 AO is discriminatory and would go beyond the law and would constitute an actionable wrong,” he added.

Drilon warned Health Secretary Francisco Duque III that he will call for a Senate investigation if the latter insists on “banning private entities from taking part in the vaccination program. It would be best for DoH to recall alleged order immediately.

Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto also questioned the supposed proposal to ban certain industries from procuring vaccines. “What is wrong with these people in the DOH and NTF that they will not allow private wealth to be used for public welfare?”

“We are now dealing with the defining health and socio-economic crisis of our time. We need all hands- on deck in suppressing this pandemic,” said Anakalusugan Partylist Rep. Michael Defensor said adding that private corporations employ tens of thousands of Filipinos needing vaccination.

The DOH, however, said the supposed draft administrative order that has been circulating is not yet final and that the department and the NTF “are still in the process of reconciling the proposed provisions with other existing laws and guidelines.”

Back to the start

With the lack of a comprehensive action plan and strategy—bearing in mind the worst possible scenario—the government has proven itself inutile in keeping the coronavirus and its mutations at bay. It had resorted to band-aid solutions one after another since Day 1 and now the country is experiencing spikes of over 7,000 a day for the past five days. Its ready answer to the spikes is quarantine controls (short of a total lockdown) and urging the public to continue obeying health protocols on social distancing, using of face mask and shields and staying at home. Worst, many leading government officials are themselves flaunting their disobedience to the same protocols to the disgust of most citizens. They brand some people as pasaway when they themselves are the supreme violators.

Crazy as it sounds, the government even has the gall to inform the public that the billions of pesos it borrowed to procure the vaccines are left with the banks to interest—and it is not clear if the accrued interest will also be used to augment the funds for the vaccination procurement program.These same funds, which government borrowed in haste, are not being used for the purpose and urgency they were acquired because the officials are busy trying to earn from these funds. Greed at its finest! And yet the government blames the delay in vaccine arrivals to the manufacturers abroad. Of course, they would not sell without advances and with no guarantees that the fate suffered by Sanofi will not befall them.

We are not back to square 1. We are even worse off than when the virus hit us first. With this resurgence, we do not even have financial relief for the next set of people who will lose their jobs because of the restrictions to the economy; no ayuda to those who have been suffering the longest from joblessness. No help to the frontliners, who in the past survived the pandemic largely because of the help from generous souls and the private sector. No thanks at all to these callous, pea-brained government officials.


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