The contract of the Bacolod City government with AstraZeneca for the purchase of 650,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines is missing, Lyzander Dilag, spokesman of Bacolod Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez, said Thursday, July 14.
The city government is being asked to pay the balance of P98 million for the vaccines “on the basis of a supposed obligation where the original contract of such obligation cannot be found, or cannot be seen, what is presented to us is merely a draft”, Dilag said at a press conference.
Asked if the city government would pay the P98 million if the contract is found, Dilag said it would have to be evaluated.
An AstraZeneca representative who met with Benitez recently said that the city government owed them 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 of the ordered vaccines more than 300,000 of the 434,000 doses not received by the city government 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.
The mayor said he will try his best not to pay for the vaccines ordered by the previous city administration that Bacolod did not receive.
“How can we pay the people’s money on a supposed contractual obligation where there is no original contract to support. That would be highly controversial or if not we would not be standing on a very solid ground that would make us vulnerable from a legal point of view,” Dilag said Thursday.
They have to find out if the legal parameters were observed in so far as the contract is concerned, Dilag said.
They also have to determine if the city has been placed in serious disadvantage or is highly prejudiced by the supposed contractual obligation, he added.
“The mayor is initiating this move simply because he wants to protect the interest of the city with the end in view that we can channel these resources to the betterment of our people,” Dilag said.
SORONGON ANSWERS
“Please, speak only the truth. Do not spread falsehoods, fake news,” Dr. Chris Sorongon, spokesman of former Bacolod mayor Evelio Leonardia, said in response.
Copies of the document that Dilag is claiming to be missing can be secured from the Sangguniang Panlungsod that approved the tripartite contract entered into by the Bacolod City government, AstraZeneca and the national government represented by the DOH, Sorongon said in a press statement released to the media Thursday.
“If he is enterprising or diligent enough, and if he knows how LGUs operate, it is easy to find documents like this”, he said. A copy of the same contract may also be secured from the city’s Bids and Awards Committee, Sorongon added.
“It is common sense in local governance where to find such documents. That is if he fully understands his work or if he performs accordingly as expected,” Sorongon said.
If Dilag is not satisfied he or his superiors can even write AstraZeneca for a copy of the contract, he added.
“They may also secure copies from the DOH, or from the NIATF since the policies on tripartite deals covering vaccine procurement at that time, as well as supply distribution process, emanated from there,” he said.
Sorongon asked why Dilag was picking on Leonardia alone when he was only one of the signatories to that contract.
“Atty. Dilag should go the extra mile to get more pogi points for his mayor by probing the vaccine deal deeper. Include AstraZeneca, the DOH and the NIATF. He can also launch an expanded probe by investigating other local governments throughout the country that inked similar agreements facilitated by the national government. After all, we are talking of a tripartite contract here”, Sorongon added.
Securing a contract with AstraZeneca at that time was an urgent need to make sure that the Bacolod population would be protected as there were no guarantees of steady supply because only three drug firms worldwide were manufacturing vaccines against COVID-19, Sorongon said.
Sorongon slammed the Truth Committee of Benitez for allegedly being untruthful by “deliberately making erroneous claims and releasing half-truths on a piece meal basis during their regular press briefings that are meant to confuse Bacolodnons and project a bad image for the previous government”.*