Makabayan bloc lawmakers want to learn the circumstances behind the reported expiration last July of 4.2 million doses of the private sector’s Covid-19 vaccines worth P5.1 billion.
Read:
https://mb.com.ph/2022/07/27/private-sector-loses-p5-1-b-expiring-covid-19-vaccines-concepcion/
Gabriela Women’s Party-list Rep. Arlene Brosas, ACT-Teachers Party-list Rep. France Castro, and Kabataan Party-list Rep. Raoul Manuel filed last Thursday, Aug. 4, House Resolution (HR) 179 or “Resolution directing the House of Representatives, through the Committee on Health, to investigate, in aid of legislation, the expiration of millions of Covid-19 vaccines amid the pandemic.”
“Especially amid the pandemic and economic crisis, where the Filipino people are suffering from the rising prices of goods and services, it is imperative for Congress to ensure that the people’s money is well-spent and not wasted due to inefficiency and corruption. It is unacceptable for the people that there are expired Covid-19 vaccines, whether donated or procured and whether they will be replaced for free or not, as they are actually the ones paying for the loans and other sources from which the vaccines were procured, and the ones on whose behalf the government received the donations,” the Makabayan lawmakers wrote in HR 179.
On top of the recently reported 4.2 million expired vaccine doses, Makabayan cited previous reports from April 2022 in which Presidential Adviser for Entrepreneurship Joey Concepcion bared that 27 million Covid-19 vaccines worth P40-billion were set to expire in July 2022.
Read: https://mb.com.ph/2022/04/20/dont-let-p40-b-worth-of-vaccines-go-to-waste-concepcion/
They also pointed out former Department of Health (DOH) Secretary Francisco Duque’s announcement that as of June 28, 2022, vaccine wastage was at an “acceptable” 4.7 percent, more than double April’s wastage rate of 2 percent.
Read: https://mb.com.ph/2022/04/23/doh-says-phs-covid-19-vaccine-wastage-at-less-than-2/
“As Congress ensures that the DOH , IATF , and all agencies concerned are doing their utmost to see to it that every cent of the taxpayers’ funds redound to the people’s benefit, it also must ensure, at the soonest possible time considering the public waning immunity, that every Filipino is shielded from the worst of the pandemic and that the uncontrolled spread of the virus, the spikes in the infection and death rates, and prolonged lockdowns in 2020 and 2021 will not happen again,” the militant solons said.
As of Friday, Aug. 5, the DOH reported that a total of 69,346,780 individual have received at least their first dose of Covid-19 vaccine, while 71,523,190 have been fully vaccinated.
On the other hand, 6,475,606 have received at least one Covid-19 booster dose.