Senator Risa Hontiveros on Tuesday renewed her name for the Department of Health to reveal the price of government-purchased COVID-19 vaccines because the non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) with the pharmaceutical corporations had now outlived their goal.
Hontiveros issued the assertion a day earlier than a Senate Blue Ribbon Committee government session throughout which NDA particulars can be disclosed to senators.
“At this point, COVID vaccine NDAs are useless and have outlived their purpose, dahil tapos na ang isyu ng price competition,” said the senator.
“It is now simply a violation of the public’s right to know how our money was spent. NDAs should no longer stand in the way of accountability and transparency.”
The minority lawmaker insisted on the necessity to disclose the price of the COVID-19 vaccines, on condition that round 44 million vaccines had been wasted.
“There is too much unnecessary secrecy surrounding this. Hindi naman dapat ituring na state secret ang presyo ng bakuna dahil pera ng bayan ang ginamit para ipambili nito. Pinipilay lang ng mga NDA na ito ang mandato ng COA na usisain kung nakasulit ba tayo sa bilyun-bilyong pisong inilabas natin noong panahon ng pandemya,” Hontiveros stated.
(The value of the vaccines shouldn’t be thought of a state secret as a result of public funds had been used for his or her procurement. The NDA solely weakens the mandate of the Commission on Audit to find out if the billions of pesos used to buy the pictures on the top of the pandemic had been spent properly.)
While she acknowledged that the DOH had submitted paperwork to the COA for correct auditing, Hontiveros stated these solely lined the mortgage agreements with the Asian Development Bank, World Bank, and people with restricted permissions from choose vaccine producers similar to Pfizer and AstraZeneca.
“What about the agreements with other vaccine manufacturers, like Sinovac? Bulto bultong bakuna pa naman mula sa Sinovac ang binili ng nakaraang administrasyon para sa national vaccination program. Paano magsasagawa ng complete audit ang COA kung patuloy na magtatago ang mga kompanya sa likod ng NDA clause ng kontrata?,” she stated.
(The earlier administration had procured COVID-19 vaccines from Sinovac in bulk for our nationwide vaccination program. How will the COA conduct an entire audit if corporations proceed to cover behind NDA contract clauses.)
“If we allow this to happen now, it is precedent-setting. Baka sa susunod na pandemya mauulit na naman ito, at posibleng maabuso,” she added.
Hontiveros added that the personal sector couldn’t “undermine” the structure by way of their NDAs with the federal government.
“Panahon na para makipagtulungan ang mga vaccine producers sa audit ng COA,” she stated.
(It is excessive time for the vaccine producers to cooperate with COA.)
“I stand by my call to completely release all information with regards to the COVID-19 vaccine procurement to the public. I have been saying this for over a year. There is no reason for this to be done behind closed doors. We deserve to know how every centavo was spent, lalo na ngayong panahon ng recession. Managot ang dapat managot, at huwag magtago sa likod ng NDA,” she stated.
In December, the DOH had submitted a number of paperwork associated to the nationwide authorities’s COVID-19 vaccine procurement to COA.
This got here after the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee launched an investigation into the alleged refusal of the Health Department to launch the main points of the vaccine procurement contracts as a result of NDAs.
The problem on the NDAs was revived throughout the deliberations of the 2023 funds in November when Senator Francis Escudero requested how the COA performed the audit on the appropriations and borrowings that had been allotted for vaccine procurement. — DVM, GMA Integrated News
Source: www.gmanetwork.com
