“IT should be honored.”
This was stressed yesterday, July 12, by Dr. Chris Sorongon, spokesperson of former Bacolod City Mayor Evelio Leonardia, following refusal of Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez to pay AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals Philippines Inc. for the remaining balance of the city government for coronavirus disease (Covid-19) vaccines it purchased last year.
According to the mayor, a representative from the pharmaceutical firm arrived in the city recently to collect the P98 million balance of the city government claiming that they already fully delivered the vaccines as early as last year.
Sorongon stressed that the tripartite agreement entered into by and between the Bacolod City Government, the Department of Health (DOH) and the pharmaceutical firm, upon the prodding of the previous national government when vaccine supply was a scarcity, is a contractual obligation that must be honored.
But, in a statement, he said it is the call of the new city administration under Benitez, if it will not honor the stipulations contained in the contract as he will be the one that will deal with AstraZeneca officials now.
"To set the record straight, there are no expired vaccines at the Bacolod storage facility and the expired vaccines he [Benitez] was referring are with the DOH central facility,” Sorongon, who used to be the deputy for medical and data analysis of the Emergency Operation Center (EOC), said.
The doctor stressed that they have no control over the vaccines stored at the agency’s facility which form part of the multilateral agreement between the national government, represented by the DOH, AstraZeneca and Bacolod City.
Of the 650, 000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines purchased by the city, only 216,000 doses have been utilized by the city government, records from the City Health Office showed.
However, Benitez said the firm insisted that the city still have 434,000 doses of vaccines at the DOH facility.
These vaccines were not accepted by the previous administration and are now stored at the facility of the DOH because the city has already exceeded its target number of inoculation, the mayor said.
Benitez lamented that 300,000 doses of the vaccines stored at the DOH facility are already expired as its lifespan is only six months.
Sorongon said at least 27 other cities and provinces in the country entered similar tripartite deals with AstraZeneca at a time when there was very limited supply of vaccines worldwide.
“With encouragement and initiative from the national government to assure our respective constituents of an ample supply of vaccine, local government units (LGUs) that have the financial capability, turned to AZ (AstraZeneca),” he said.
Sorongon added that all supplies delivered earlier by the DOH, including all brands, have been administered by the EOC and medical frontliners of the Covid-19 Vaccination Council.
This resulted in a 136 percent vaccination rate for Bacolod, the highest in the whole Western Visayas as certified by the DOH.
Meanwhile, Sorongon dismissed claims that there was over estimation of the volume of vaccines to be procured.
"We based the computation on the target population of Bacolod City, assuming that there will not be enough vaccines or there will be delayed deliveries from the national government," he added.*