Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez said on Friday, July 15, that he will seek the national government’s assistance in settling the account of Bacolod City with AstraZeneca.
Benitez, who was furnished a copy of the tripartite contract by AstraZeneca on Thursday, said he will coordinate with the Department of Health.
They are now studying the contract, he said.
An AstraZeneca representative who met with Benitez recently said that the city government owed a balance of P98 million for the 650,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines ordered by the Leonardia administration.
The Leonardia administration had paid AstraZeneca an initial P65 million, Benitez was also informed.
Benitez said 434,000 doses of the vaccines ordered had not been received by Bacolod.
More than 300,000 of the 434,000 doses have expired at the Department of Health (DOH) cold storage facility in Metro Manila and the rest will expire at the end of the month, Benitez said on Monday.
Benitez said they are exploring the options available and will decide according to what’s best for Bacolod.
Meanwhile, Benitez said redundant electrical posts will be removed along with “spaghetti wires” during the city’s clean up drive.
Spaghetti wires refer to electrical, cable and telecommunication wires that are abandoned, damaged and not being used, which have become an eyesore for being messy, entangled and disorganized, Executive Order OO3, Series of 2022, said.
The removal will be conducted five days a week on Saturdays, Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, he said.
There will be no removal work on Mondays and Fridays when there is heavy traffic, he said.*