ILOILO City – The city government sought the guidance of the Commission on Audit (COA) on how to resolve the payment issue relative to the procurement of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines from British pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca last 2021.
Lawyer Quintin Magsico, assistant city legal officer, said the city is waiting for COA’s response.
“Until we get that instructions or guidance from COA or assured of the replacement of those expired vaccines by DOH (Department of Health), we will not pay AstraZeneca,” said Magsico.
In January 2021, the city government entered into a tripartite agreement with the national government Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-MEID) and AstraZeneca for 600,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines at P500 per dose.
Magsico noted all deliveries of AstraZeneca passed through the DOH.
The number of doses procured was based on the city’s target population of 525,000 which includes the city residents and transient individuals who are working or studying here.
The problem, Magsico noted, is that over time people were trying to avail of the vaccines – for primary and booster doses – but after the COVID-19 has waned, people became disinterested.
“Ang aton order is fixed because may target population kita. What happened is that, some of the vaccines were not used and eventually expired. Not AstraZeneca’s fault, not also the city government’s fault but people are losing interest in having themselves vaccinated,” Magsico added.
He said of the 600,000 doses procured, a total of 416,700 doses expired: 269,300 doses on March 2022 and 147,400 doses on April 2022.
“The stand of the city is we only pay what we used. But if we look at the stand point of the legal aspect, you ought to pay tanan nga gin-deliver. Pag-abot sang item sa AstraZeneca nga facility, good as delivered na ina,” he said.
But Magsico added as a government that needs to protect its fund, the stand of the city government is not to pay unless there is a replacement of the expired vaccines.
“We will only pay what we have used, we will pay the entire amount if ma-assure kita of the replacement through DOH as a partner in the MOA,” Magsico reiterated.
According to General Services Office (GSO) head Joren Sartorio, of the total procured AstraZeneca vaccines, 183,300 doses have been utilized.
The city government also used the donated thousands of doses of other vaccine brands especially that there was a delay in the delivery of AstraZeneca.
“That was also during that time that the production of Pfizer and Moderna has increased… so sige na padala ang national government through the DOH sa aton. Who can refuse nga ara na ang vaccine nga maka-protect sa aton nga population? When the AstraZeneca arrived, damo na sang stocks, damo na brands available and the people preferred other vaccines over AstraZeneca. So it caused a slowdown in the utilization of AstraZeneca,” Sartorio added.
He said, including other vaccine brands donated to the city, there are a total of 36,311 vials of COVID-19 vaccines that have expired.
On Friday, March 24, Sartorio said they held a “reverse logistics” wherein the DOH pulled out from the city’s storage all unused brands of COVID-19 vaccines including AstraZeneca that have expired.
Also turned over to the DOH were 110,785 empty vials of various COVID-19 vaccines.
For now, Sartorio said based on their meeting with the DOH last week, the department cannot commit yet of the replacement, citing the insufficient supply of the new COVID-19 vaccine Bivalent.
“Nagapadala pa sila sa aton in little quantities sang mga existing nila nga mga Pfizer (vaccine). We received mga dosages pa pero ang aton Bivalent nga vaccines wala pa kita sang gina-expect soonest kag ang ila nga guidelines as to the utilization have yet to come out,” Sartorio explained.
As early as March last year, the city government signified to rescind its contract with AstraZeneca.
In April 2022, Mayor Jerry P. Treñas wrote to AstraZeneca expressing the city government’s intention to rescind the contract, citing the late deliveries of the vaccines.
But according to the IATF, the vaccine deal could no longer be rescinded. Thus, until now, it is not yet terminated./PN
