Mayor Evelio Leonardia announced that the City of Bacolod has made an advance initial payment of P31 million for the 650,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines it contracted with AstraZeneca Philippines Pharmaceuticals Inc.
“The initial payment practically consummates our contract for these critical vaccine supplies. We wanted to close the agreement as early as we could and that is why we made the payment ahead of the Feb. 24 deadline,” Leonardia said.
“That should ensure the delivery of the AstraZeneca vaccines starting the third quarter. This is a step forward for our consolidated vaccine program,” the mayor said.
“Vice Mayor El Cid Familiaran and the Sangguniang Panlungsod members played a vital role in this process. We also salute our City Administrator Em Ang, City Legal Officer Atty. Joselito Bayatan, and Acting City Treasurer Arlene Memoria in making sure that we beat the deadline,” the mayor added.
Memoria said the city has deposited P31,219,500 to the account of AstraZeneca on Monday, which represented 20 percent of the total cost of the 650,000 vaccines. The pharmaceutical firm has also acknowledged receipt of the initial payment.
It can be recalled that President Rodrigo Duterte signed on Feb. 18 Presidential Memorandum No. 51 granting authority to local governments to make advance payments exceeding the 15 percent limit for the procurement of the COVID-19 vaccines.
The memorandum order comes after the League of Cities of the Philippines, led by Leonardia as national president, had asked the President for an executive order allowing the LGUs to make advance payments to drug manufacturers they contracted ahead of a February 24 deadline.
“We are very thankful to President Rodrigo Duterte for the timely issuance of Memorandum Order 51 that will allow cities to make advance payments for the procurement of COVID-19 vaccines. This has a direct impact, especially to cities which had earlier signed the Multilateral Agreement with the Department of Health, National Task Force Against COVID-19, and AstraZeneca. But this will, more importantly, benefit all LGUs similarly situated,” the mayor said.
“This is definitely a giant leap towards accelerating the implementation of our local vaccination programs. Bacolod City is among the top 5 direct beneficiaries along with Davao, Quezon, Makati and Manila for having the biggest volume of allocated vaccine supply,” he added.
Leonardia also acknowledged the hard work of Vaccine Czar and Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr., vaccine czar and chief implementer of the National Task Force Against COVID-19; Senator Bong Go, chair of the Senate Committee on Health; and Commission on Audit Chairman Michael Aguinaldo. – NND
