LGU procurement to help nat’l vaccination program: Zubiri

MANILA – A Senate bill seeking to expedite the procurement and administration of Covid-19 vaccines will allow local government units (LGUs) and private entities to directly procure vaccines with their own funds provided they do so within a tripartite mechanism with the Department of Health and the National Task Force Against Covid-19.

“We need to expedite our procurement because we are in a race against the clock,” said Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri, one of the principal authors and sponsors of Senate Bill 2057, or the Covid-19 Vaccination Program Act of 2021. “We need mass inoculation and herd immunity as soon as possible.”

Aside from Zubiri, Senators Sonny Angara, Imee Marcos, Grace Poe, Pia Cayetano, Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr., Ralph Recto, Joel Villanueva, Nancy Binay, Francis Tolentino, Win Gatchalian, Richard Gordon, Cynthia Villar, Risa Hontiveros, Kiko Pangilinan, Manny Pacquiao, and Christopher “Bong” Go co-authored the proposed bill.

Zubiri said the LGUs have been requesting the passage of the measure.

“About 70 LGUs are already in negotiations with vaccine suppliers through the tripartite mechanism, and they will of course need to deposit advance payments to secure their vaccines. Otherwise, they will lose the allocation,” he said.

For the duration of the state of calamity and pandemic, the bill will exempt LGUs from Section 338 of the Local Government Code and Sec. 88 of the Government Auditing Code, which prohibits LGUs from making advance payments.

In this way, he said LGUs will be able to secure Covid-19 vaccines with advance payments of up to 50 percent.

“For LGUs na bibili ng vaccines, susunod pa rin po sila sa (that will purchase vaccines, they still have to follow) national guidelines on the Covid-19 vaccine prioritization framework and criteria drafted by the National Immunization Technical Advisory Group (NITAG) which was adopted by the IATF, especially on the prioritization of frontline workers in health facilities, senior citizens, and indigent persons. So it will not be a rich vs. poor scenario,” Zubiri said.

Under the proposed bill, Zubiri said the national government will be able to save more funds for lower-income areas.

“Kasi iyon pong dapat nakalaan na (Because the allotted) budget for higher-income areas, we will now be able to redirect some of that money to rural areas or low-income LGUs,” he said. “Vaccination has to be a national effort, we all understand that. But in an archipelagic country, LGUs are naturally going to play a big part in that national effort.”

Zubiri added that the bill will empower LGUs to help the national government vaccinate “as many people as possible, as soon as possible.”

“This is the true spirit of Bayanihan, this is Bayanihan at work,” he said.