FORMER solicitor general and Integrated Bar of the Philippines national president Jose Anselmo Cadiz yesterday asked the Supreme Court to compel concerned government agencies to disclose details of COVID-19 supply and procurement agreements worth P113 billion between 2020 and 2022.
Joining Cadiz in the petition for certiorari and mandamus with prayer of the conduct of an oral arguments are lawyers Randall Tabayoyong, Jeffrey Constantino, and Nizzane Vico.
Named respondents in the petition were the Departments of Health, Finance, and Budget, and the Commission on Audit, which Cadiz and the other petitioners have accused of keeping under wraps crucial information that could provide answers as to how public funds were spent.
They argued there is a need for the tribunal’s intervention to compel the respondents to disclose the supply agreements.
“The public has the right to know how their funds were utilized, especially in matters as critical as the procurement of COVID-19 vaccines. Our petition seeks to uphold this fundamental right and ensure that government agencies fulfill their ministerial duties under the Constitution,” they said in the petition.
The refusal of the agencies to disclose these supply agreements, they added, constitute a violation of the public’s right to know or right to information as provided in Section 7, Article III of the Constitution.
“We are hopeful that, through this petition, the Supreme Court will recognize the urgency and importance of our request for the supply agreements as well as the grave abuse of discretion that the respondents committed in denying that request. In the end, we are only trying to uphold the people’s right to information guaranteed under our Constitution,” the petition said.
They said they were forced to seek the SC’s intervention as their previous effort to get the information by filing requests through Freedom of Information channels went unheeded.
They stressed the public has the right to know whether any government funds allotted for the purchase of COVID-19 vaccines were misused or unaccounted for.
Cadiz, in an interview with reporters, said they want the SC to compel the respondent agencies to release the documents for the public to know also if the COVID vaccines were overpriced or not.
He also said they have been asking the departments for the documents for almost a year now and they “were met with denial after denial.”
The DOH, he said, ignored them.
Asked why they filed the petition only yesterday, when the public health emergency declaration due to the COVID-19 pandemic was in 2023, Cadiz said government told them to comply first with the requirements for disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act.
“Under the FOI Act, there are various steps to be taken, including sending letters to the concerned department and waiting for their reply, and if you are denied, you may appeal. There are so many processes and there are four departments that we sent letters to, namely the DBM, DOF, DOH and COA,” he said in mixed Filipino and English.
Cadiz said the supply and procurement agreements were entered into by the Duterte administration.
Asked if they have evidence of anomaly or irregularity, Cadiz said he and the other petitioners could not say for certain because of the refusal of the agencies to give documents.
