Philippines won’t sign MPAs with shady consolidators

MANILA, Philippines —National Task Force against COVID-19 chief implementer Carlito Galvez Jr. said Thursday that the Philippine government would not sign multiparty agreements (MPAs) with questionable consolidators.

As vaccine manufacturers remain not open to this type of agreement, Galvez stressed that the Philippine government is also standing firm in its position to put on hold the MPAs that involve questionable deals made by third-party consolidators.

“I need to have prudent judgment on securing and entering into agreements. We cannot sign (an agreement) without the indicative delivery dates. This should be indicated so we’d know if there is a slippage,” he said during the House committee on economic affairs hearing.

He noted, though, that some requests for MPAs for the purchase of vaccines included in the Philippines’ vaccine portfolio were put on hold because of supply concerns in the global market.

Galvez pointed out that supply issues were also the main reason for slippages in the deliveries of Moderna, AstraZeneca and Sputnik V vaccines.

The COVID-19 Vaccination Act of 2021 or RA 11525 allows local government units (LGUs) and private firms to procure vaccine supplies through MPAs with the national government.

Galvez said the NTF welcomed this arrangement, however, stressed the task force will not allow dubious deals made by consolidators that will put the procuring entities, particularly LGUs, into the “disadvantage side.”

Presidential adviser on entrepreneurship and Go Negosyo founder Joey Concepcion supported Galvez’s position on the need to exercise prudence in signing the MPAs.

“Secretary Galvez is very careful in choosing the vaccine manufacturer that would support the Philippines. We have to be careful because if the reliability of the vaccine is not there, you would have a lot of problems with those who have got the vaccines,” Concepcion said.

He and Galvez received 502,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport yesterday.

This is on top of the 1.5 million doses of Sinovac vaccines that were scheduled to arrive from China yesterday on board Philippine Airlines.

Concepcion expressed confidence that the Philippine economy will bounce back with the arrival of more vaccines procured by the private sector, including the ones bought through the “A Dose of Hope” initiative.

“We are grateful for the timely arrival of more COVID-19 vaccines and we look forward to receiving even more of these in the next weeks. This will help create bakuna bubbles quicker,” he said, referring to his proposed model that allows vaccinated individuals to move more freely and enter business establishments like shops and malls.

He said given the need to balance health and safety precautions with support for business owners, this model would boost economic activities in the country.

“This is a reasonable consideration for us to constrict the mobility of the unvaccinated, as the only thing we want is to protect them and save their lives,” he said earlier. – Sheila Crisostomo, Rudy Santos