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President Rodrigo Duterte ordered the government to allow private sector procurement of COVID-19 vaccines
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Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque, however, clarified a tripartite agreement with government and vaccine manufacturers will still be required for vaccine procurement by the private sector
President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered the government to allow the private sector to procure its own COVID-19 vaccines “at will.”
In a televised public address on March 29, Duterte said he has ordered National Task Force Against COVID-19 (NTF) chief implementer and vaccine czar Carlito Galvez, Jr. “to sign any and all documents that would allow the private sector to import at will.”
“Maski magkano o ilan ang gusto nilang ipasok okay sa akin (Whatever amount or volume they want to import is okay with me),” Duterte said, adding that businesses wanted to procure their own vaccines for their employees.
However, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque, in a press briefing on March 30, clarified that a tripartite agreement with the government will still be required for the private sector to be able to procure vaccines.
In a March 22 statement, NTF and the Department of Health (DOH) noted the private sector is allowed to procure vaccines but has to enter into tripartite agreements with the Philippine government and the vaccine manufacturers.
They noted that pursuant to Republic Act No. 11525 or the COVID-19 Vaccination Program Act of 2021 recently passed by Congress, private companies and local government units are authorized to procure COVID-19 vaccines. These vaccines must have been given emergency use authorization (EUA) by the Food and Drug Administration in cooperation with the DOH and the NTF through a tripartite agreement.
On January 14, various private firms and local government units signed a tripartite agreement to procure 17 million doses of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine. This March, port operator International Container Terminal Services, Inc., signed a tripartite agreement on the procurement of 20 million doses, of which 13 million were secured by the national government and 7 million are for the operator’s frontline workers.
The Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) in a March 17 statement called on government to allow the private sector to import and buy COVID-19 vaccines directly from accredited sources without restrictions or conditions amidst the reported surge of infections in Luzon.
PCCI president Benedicto Yujuico said the government should speed up the procurement and rollout of vaccines “to ensure the safety of our workers and people, improve consumer confidence and hasten the recovery of our economy.”
PCCI pointed out that even as restrictions have eased, companies continue to see a sharp drop in sales mainly due to the combination of restrictions in mobility and fear of people to travel in order to buy goods or avail of services.
“We have to keep pace with our neighbors, which except for Indonesia, have lower infection rate than us and yet are ahead of us (including Indonesia) in implementing the vaccination program. We cannot risk being left behind again and revert to being the ‘basket case’ of Asia,” Yujuico said.
The tripartite agreement is required because manufacturers of available COVID-19 vaccines are requiring the national government to cover indemnification before any procurement deals are finalized and to shoulder the cost of the adverse effects of the vaccines.
It is likewise required because available vaccines are only provided EUA, which means the vaccines cannot be sold commercially and must be administered in line with the prioritization framework of the national government.
