Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri (File photo from his office)
MANILA, Philippines — Letting local government units and private entities directly buy COVID-19 vaccines with their own funds will help the national government speed up its immunization program, Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri said in a statement issued on Tuesday.
And that’s precisely the aim of Senate Bill No. 2057 — the proposed COVID-19 Vaccination Program Act of 2021 — that Zubiri authored with several other senators and was filed on Tuesday
“We need to expedite our procurement because we are in a race against the clock,” Zubiri, himself a survivor of the disease, said. “We need mass inoculation and herd immunity as soon as possible.”
Zubiri explained that LGUs had been asking for this bill: “About seventy LGUs are already in negotiations with vaccine suppliers through the tripartite mechanism, and they will of course need to deposit advance payments to secure their vaccines. Otherwise, they will lose the allocation.”
The tripartite mechanism involves the LGU, Department of Health, and the National Taskforce Against COVID-19.
The bill proposes to speed up the procurement of vaccines by allowing LGUs to make advance payments of up to 50 percent of their purchases. In effect, the bill will exempt them from the prohibition of making such payments under the Local Government Code and the Government Auditing Code.
The exemption will be in effect for as long as the pandemic persists.
“For LGUs that will buy vaccines, they will still follow the national guidelines on the COVID-19 vaccine prioritization framework and criteria drafted by the National Immunization Technical Advisory Group (NITAG) which was adopted by the IATF, especially on the prioritization of frontline workers in health facilities, senior citizens, and indigent persons. So it will not be a rich vs. poor scenario,” Zubiri said.
Under the bill, the national government will even find an increase in funds set aside to buy vaccines for those in the lower-income areas, he pointed out.
“That’s because the budget set aside for higher-income areas, we will now be able to redirect some of that money to rural areas or low-income LGUs,” Zubiri said.
Summing up his statement, said: “Vaccination has to be a national effort, we all understand that. But in an archipelagic country, LGUs are naturally going to play a big part in that national effort. This bill will empower our LGUs to help the national government vaccinate as many people as possible, as soon as possible. This is the true spirit of bayanihan. This is Bayanihan at work.”
The other senators who authored the bill are Sonny Angara, Imee Marcos, Grace Poe, Pia Cayetano, Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr., Ralph Recto, Joel Villanueva, Nancy Binay, Francis Tolentino, Sherwin Gatchalian, Richard Gordon, Cynthia Villar, and Christopher “Bong” Go.
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