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De Lima wants tripartite deals for COVID-19 jabs scrapped to speed up vaccine rollout
De Lima wants tripartite deals for COVID-19 jabs scrapped to speed up vaccine rollout
Lamenting the continuous surge in COVID-19 cases in the Philippines a year since the outbreak, opposition Senator Leila de Lima on Saturday, April 3, called on the government to review its vaccination program to address issues that supposedly cause the delay in its rollout.
De Lima, in her dispatch, said the increase in novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) infections would have been prevented had the Duterte administration been proactive in procuring vaccines and implementing its inoculation program.
"Since the Duterte regime has proven its incompetence in its failure to secure timely vaccines for Filipinos, there is an urgent need to revisit the vaccination campaign, change the tripartite agreements that cause a bottleneck, and allow the private sector to directly import vaccines without the Duterte-brand red tape," the detained senator said.
She specifically called for an "end" to the tripartite agreements being required of local government units (LGUs) and private firms before securing the vaccine supplies. This was also provided under the Republic Act No. 11525, or the COVID-19 Vaccination Program Act.
Authorities, however, explained that vaccine manufacturers requested for the intervention of the national government thru the tripartite deals. They said it would also ensure that vaccinations will be aligned with the efforts and guidelines of the national government.
Recently, President Duterte allowed private firms to import vaccines from suppliers "at will", directing vaccine czar Carlito Galvez to immediately sign all necessary documents for the matter.
"But as we have seen since, IATF (Interagency Task Force on the Management of Emerging Infectious Disease) is demanding the private companies donate half of their purchase to the government while raising prices of the vaccine. Not only is this making vaccines practically unavailable to already distressed companies, this regime is also using access to vaccine a political tool for patronage politics and influence peddling," De Lima maintained.
"Buhay ang nakasalalay sa mabilisang pagpapabakuna, at kung ang gobyerno mismo ang nagpapabagal dito, anong silbi pa ng pakikialam nila? Kinailangan ba ng tripartite agreement sa pagbibigay ng Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) para sa RT-PCR kits, antigen kits (Live are at stake here, and if government is the one causing the slow down of the vaccinations, what is the purpose of their intervention? Are tripartite agreements also necessary for the issuance of EUA for RT-PCR test kits, antigen kits)?" she further said.
"Maraming pwedeng pagkaabalahan at pagtuunan ng pansin ang IATF, kaysa pagpapabagal lang sa dating ng bakuna (The IATF may focus its attention and get busy with several other matters instead of delaying the delivery of vaccines)," De Lima said, citing the smuggling and "black market" of unregistered vaccines in the country, among others.
"We need to step up our vaccination campaign and we need to work with our private sector. Only then can we even hope for anything close to acceptable accomplishment in our fight against COVID-19," she appealed.