OFFICIALS yesterday continued to refuse to say in public how much government purchased COVID-19 vaccines, insisting on the non-disclosure agreement the country entered into with vaccine manufacturers.
Senate minority leader Franklin Drilon again asked the government to disclose the prices, during the hearing of the Senate Committee of the Whole on the national vaccination program.
Drilon said the Senate is exercising its oversight function. He said the public should know the vaccine prices because these were brought with taxpayer’s money.
Carlito Galvez Jr., chief of the National Task Force against COVID-19, and vaccine czar who was physically present during the hearing, said non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) should be honored by the government because are part of the trade secret of the vaccine makers.
Galvez said he can disclose the exact prices in an executive session.
Drilon said he is not accusing anyone of overpricing but the people have the right to know the details of the vaccines bought.
Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez, who attended the hearing virtually, also refused to publicly disclose the prices but said these range from $6.75 (roughly P337.50) to $27.59 (around P1,379.50) per dose.
Dominguez said he can only surmise that the vaccines are differently priced because these are different from one another, due to different volumes purchased by different countries, and that manufacturers could have been basing their prices depending on a country’s ability to pay.
But, Drilon said, funds used to purchase the vaccines will be subjected to an audit by the Commission on Audit and he cannot understand why it cannot be disclosed in public.
Dominguez said: “It is open for audit by COA but we cannot disclose it publicly. I also personally designed the financing of this involving the Asian Development Bank (ADB), World Bank (WB), and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) as they will double check this because they will not pay for that if we are overpaying. They second check us.”
He added: “At this point we are prevented by the NDA imposed by the suppliers from disclosing individual prices of vaccines… That is the NDA. We did not invent this NDA. They (vaccine manufacturers) were the ones who imposed it. They won’t talk to us if we don’t sign the NDA.”
With this, Drilon asked Dominguez if he can give the assurance that the country got competitive prices.
Dominguez replied, “I am sorry I cannot do that because I don’t know what other countries pay. But from unofficial sources, we are more or less in the ballpark. ADB, AIIB and WB they are checking if we are overpricing but they cannot disclose how much they are paying for other countries.”
Dominguez said he would like to make public the prices as he believes in transparency but the the NDA prevents them from doing so.
ENOUGH FUNDS
Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez said the government has P88.6 billion which is enough to procure 148 million doses to inoculate at least 70 million Filipinos, or 100 percent of the adult population.
Of the P88.6 billion, Dominguez said P2.5 billion will come from the budget of the Department of Health under the 2021 General Appropriations Act, P10 billion from the Bayanihan 2 funds, P3.26 billion will come from “other sources” in the 2021 national budget and Bayanihan 2, P57.3 billion sourced through concessional loans from multilateral partners such as WB, ADB, and AIIB. He said P12.7 billion will come from other financing sources, while P2.8 billion will come from contingency funds.
Dominguez said the government has contracted some 33.5 million doses worth $639.8 million or around P31.9 billion from foreign loans, which will be enough to inoculate close to 17 million Filipinos.
The government targets to vaccinate 50 million to 70 million Filipinos by the end of the year as part of efforts to achieve herd immunity.
He said the government has also made reservations for 56 million doses through binding term sheets which will be finalized through the execution of supply agreements with vaccine manufacturers.
“In sum, we are assured of around 89.5 million doses of vaccines using our foreign loans. These will be sufficient to inoculate at least 44.75 million Filipinos. In accordance with the terms of the signed supply agreements, we have already paid a total amount of $243.25 million (or around P12.2 billion),” he said.
On top of these, he said, the government is also expecting some 44 million doses from the global vaccine-sharing scheme COVAX Facility which is led by the World Health Organization.
Using the government’s regular budget, Dominguez said the country has secured a total of 15.5 million vaccine doses amounting to $175.5 million (P8.7 billion).
“In sum, the government is assured of at least 149.83 million doses of vaccines through binding term sheets and supply agreements backed by foreign loans, our regular budget, and donations from other countries and the COVAX Facility. Out of this number, more than 12.7 million (doses) have so far been delivered to the Philippines,” he added.
Dominguez also announced during the hearing that Japan will donate donation of “Japan-made AstraZeneca vaccines to some countries, including the Philippines.
“We have not yet been officially informed of the number of doses that are going to be donated by Japan,” he added.
President Duterte on Monday night said the executive department is willing to continue explaining to lawmakers the budgetary requirements of the vaccination program — from where the money is sourced to where the money is spent and how much is borrowed and the like — until they are fully satisfied.
“In the spirit of transparency, we can do it even he — ah everyday talking to them hanggang maintindihan nila ang (until they understand the) wherewithal nito kung bakit ganito ang bakuna (why the vaccine is like this),” he said.
Dominguez on Monday night reported that the government has enough money to fund an extensive vaccination drive that will cover the adult and young populations.
Dominguez said that in the case of the younger population, or those aged 12 to 17 years, the government needs at least P20 billion to cover 15 million teenagers.
He said the government has enough reserves to cover the P20 billion.
“We have enough… So we don’t have to worry,” he said.
Dominguez allayed concerns that the country is borrowing too much money, confident that the government’s finances will normalize in the next few years once the economy reopens.
“So we think that the debt level of our country is high but it is sustainable and we can manage to handle this debt in the coming years,” he said adding that the tax reform initiatives of the government have kept the country’s credit rating “very, very strong” that enables the country to borrow at a low interest. — With Jocelyn Montemayor and Angela Lorraine Celis
