Drilon hits ‘mismanaged’ Covid-19 procurement process

MANILA, Philippines — The delayed delivery of doses of the Covid-19 vaccine to the country is due to the “mismanagement” of the procurement process and should not be solely blamed on the lack of an indemnity law, Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon said Monday.

“To me, this is not the only reason,” Drilon said in an interview onABS-CBN News Channel, referring to the lack of an indemnity law and the vaccine makers’ requirement for an indemnification agreement.

“Just like the way the Covid-19 pandemic was handled, there’s a mismanagement in the handling of the supply agreements. Of course, certain aspects cannot be blamed on the government, for example, the demand for an indemnity agreement as a result of the Dengvaxia cases,” he added.

The senator also blamed the Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) “mishandling” of the Dengvaxia case as a contributing factor in the delayed arrival of Covid-19 vaccines to the country.

“To me, the indemnification requirement is borne out by the events that transpired in Dengvaxia controversy. Why suddenly the manufacturers required an indemnity clause? Because of their experience on the way the Dengvaxia controversy was handled against Sanofi,” Drilon said.

“It should be looked at in the context of the way PAO Chief Persida Acosta handled the Dengvaxia controversy,” he added.

The Philippines has already signed and submitted to the COVAX facility the indemnity agreement for the expected Pfizer and AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccines.

This submission, according to Drilon, shows that the lack of an indemnification law is not the only factor for the delay in the vaccine arrival.

“This indemnity agreements are not the cause of these delays because if it is then we should have been informed as early as July and the fact that it was only foisted on us last week is an indication that the supply agreement is not the cause of the delay,” Drilon pointed out.

“We know that they said indemnification agreements have been signed and that was without the law, so, totally, it is the mismanagement of this entire process that caused the delay in our procurement,” he added.

The initial delivery to the country of 117,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines from Covax had been delayed due to the need to finalize indemnification agreements.

President Rodrigo Duterte himself is “getting impatient” about the delay, according to presidential spokesperson Harry Roque.

Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez has already apologized for the delay and asked for the public’s patience.

Drilon pointed out that another possible reason for the delay in the delivery of vaccines is the government’s refusal to initially make an advance payment.

“These are commercial transactions and with the supply very tight, we have to fall in line. This is just the reality in this situation. The manufacturers are commercial establishments. They have their own interest to protect and requiring an advance payment is not something we can complain about,” he said.

“These manufacturers have a hold on the market simply because of the limited manufacturing capacity so there you are, we have to queue and we are last in the queue because of our failure to make the advance payments early enough,” he added.

Drilon, a lawyer and a former justice secretary, said the law allows a 15-percent advance payment, which can be increased in emergency situations, like the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Under the law, we are allowed to pre-pay incase of emergency situations and the pandemic is an emergency situation, which allows us advance payments beyond the 15 percent that is authorized,” he explained.

The Senate and House of Representatives are currently tackling their respective bills seeking to expedite the procurement of vaccines and to establish a national indemnity fund.

In the Senate, the bill is expected to be approved on final reading later Monday, according to Drilon.

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