DOH chief personally submits vax papers

Maria Rosario Vergeire —NIÑO JESUS ORBETA/INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

Department of Health (DOH) officer-in-charge Maria Rosario Vergeire on Thursday expressed confidence that the Commission on Audit (COA) will find in order all the documents she personally submitted to government auditors on Thursday.

“We are very much confident… we are confident because we know that we bought these vaccines to protect the Filipino people,” Vergeire told reporters after turning over pertinent documents at the COA head office in Quezon City.

Asked which documents were handed to the COA, Vergeire said the paperwork included “supply agreements that COA has been asking so they could finalize the auditing of loans.”

However, she noted that these do not include the nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) with vaccine suppliers as these will only be disclosed in an executive session at the Senate.

Suspicion of obstruction

Newly confirmed COA Chair Gamaliel Cordoba, in a separate Senate hearing, earlier blamed former Health Secretary Francisco Duque III for withholding documents on procurement deals, citing the NDAs between the DOH and vaccine manufacturers.

Duque then refuted this, pointing out that it was under his watch when the DOH sought a special audit and even provided the documents to the COA as required by multilateral lenders World Bank and Asian Development Bank, which loaned some $2 billion to the government.

Only two vaccine manufacturers tapped by the national government for its COVID-19 vaccination campaign gave their green light to the DOH to disclose procurement details, including the pricing, for the special audit of vaccine deals.

“Of the manufacturers engaged by the [Philippine government], AstraZeneca and Pfizer have given their consent for DOH to disclose information under specific terms,” the health department said on Wednesday.

“Disclosing information covered by the confidentiality agreements without explicit consent from the manufacturers has legal as well as public health repercussions,” said the DOH.