Drilon wants Galvez, Duque to disclose Philippines’ vaccine supply deals

Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon on Monday appealed to vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. and Health Secretary Francisco Duque III to reveal the prices of COVID-19 jabs and submit to the Senate Committee of the Whole the country's supply deals with vaccine manufacturers.

Drilon issued the statement as the Senate committee of the whole is set to resume its inquiry into the national vaccination program on Tuesday, June 13, focusing on the utilization of the P82.5-billion budget for vaccine procurement.

"We are asking Secretary Galvez and Secretary Duque to bring us the signed supply agreements. These are not confidential. The non-disclosure agreement is not applicable to this and this is taxpayer's money. These are public records," Drilon said in a statement, in a mix of Filipino and English.

For Drilon, the government's task force for pandemic response and Department of Health can no longer invoke a non-disclosure agreement when the supply agreement is already signed.

"This isn't an intelligence fund that allows a closed envelope system. The Commission on Audit will audit it eventually and they cannot hide it,” he said, in mixed Filipino and English.

Transparency on vaccine supply

If the government is transparent about the contents of supply agreements, Drilon said, it will also help in eradicating vaccine hesitancy among Filipinos.

“Filipinos need to know that we have a steady supply of vaccines. There is a slow deployment of vaccines. They need to know the price of the vaccines, because, ultimately, it is the taxpayers that will pay for the vaccines. It is the public’s right to know,” Drilon pointed out.

Echoing Drilon, Senator Joel Villanueva said details on the government's purchasing of vaccines such as price per dose should be known.

Villanueva also suggested that if securing vaccines requires pre-payment, the government should implement a "multi-year budgeting approach, and not rely on annualized financing."

“Kung aabutin po ng ilang taon ang pagbabakuha, mas mainam na gawin na rin nating multi-year ang appropriation, or at the very least, ang projection,” said Villanueva, in another statement.

[If the vaccination drive is going to take years, then it is better to do a multi-year appropriation, or at least projection.]

“What is important is that we have a big picture of our amortization schedule, so to speak. Hindi po pwede yung pa-tingi-tingi. Hindi rin po nakaasa sa kalendaryo na sa isang fiscal year ito lang ang pondo,” he added.

[We can't do it a little at a time. We can't rely on that every fiscal year, this is our only fund.]

Villanueva and Drilon also indicated in their statements that the executive branch must provide details on vaccine procurement to Congress to grant their request in adding P25 billion to the P82.5-billion budget for vaccination.

Recently, the national government said it will need an additional P25 billion this 2021 to buy more vaccines and another P55 billion in 2022 for booster shots. — BM, GMA News