MANILA – Allowing the private sector and local government units’ participation in the country’s coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine rollout could be a “key solution” to improve the implementation of the program.
In an interview with CNN Philippines’ The Source, Sen. Francis Pangilinan questioned the government for not letting the said parties directly purchase their own COVID-19 vaccines.
“If we will just let the (Department of Health) DOH bureaucracy be the primary and sole vaccine rollout bureaucracy, I doubt that we will be able to reach our targets,” the opposition senator said.
“But if you get the local governments involved, you get the private sector involved, and this is a whole of nation approach, and you have an effective leader in Secretary [Carlito] Galvez who has the support of the DOH, I think magiging iba ang hugis at magiging iba ang timpla ng vaccine rollout,” he added.
According to Pangilinan, the issue was among those that hogged the limelight during Monday’s Senate Committee of the Whole hearing as lawmakers questioned the policy requiring LGUs and private firms to enter into a tripartite agreement with the national government to procure vaccines.
Pangilinan said he sees his fellow senators pushing for the amendment of this rule when they reconvene for the next inquiry but noted that “safeguards” must be put in place.
Meanwhile, Pangilinan also commended vaccine czar Galvez for his “gallant” efforts, but noted that he has to have the support of a “working bureaucracy.”
“Unless he has a working bureaucracy and stakeholders’ commitment around him, I’m afraid he might be a general without any army or soldiers,” Pangilinan said.
“I have no doubt General Galvez has what it takes to make this work, but he needs the DOH’s sense of urgency,” he added.
The Philippines recently secured vaccine doses from China’s Sinovac, US’ Novavax and UK’s AstraZeneca. Officials earlier noted that the initial 50,000-dose batch from China will be given to medical frontliners in Metro Manila./PN
