“To pay or not to pay.”
That is the 98-million-peso question confronting the city, lawyer Lizander Dilag, spokesperson for Bacolod Mayor Albee Benitez, yesterday said, referring to the request of AstraZeneca (AZ) for payment of the balance of P98 million for the remaining 434,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccine.
Dilag said the city is being asked to pay P98 million on the basis of its supposed obligation (to AZ) where the original contract of such obligation cannot be found and which they believe is with the previous administration. What they were presented was merely a draft of the contract.
When the mayor pronounced that he will not pay such obligation, it was in the context of several parameters, he said.
Earlier, Benitez said he will do his best not to pay and would put the money somewhere else that could benefit the people. He said that after a representative of AstraZeneca came asking for the payment of the remaining balance of P98 million for the vaccines that the city had ordered the previous year.
Dilag said the contract was signed by AstraZeneca and the previous administration, so consequently the previous administration should perhaps have an obligation to help investigate the issue between AstraZeneca and the current administration.
He said that the pharmaceutical firm cannot provide the copy of the original contract, until then the city cannot do such a thing as pay.
Dr. Chris Sorongon, spokesperson of former mayor Evelio Leonardia, said the city government under the previous administration initially paid AZ P65 million as part of the purchase agreement.
Sorongon said the city government during the Leonardia administration had entered into a tripartite agreement with the Department of Health (DOH), and AZ upon the prodding of the previous national government under the Duterte administration when vaccine supply was a scarcity.
The Leonardia administration bought 650,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccine from AZ, and received and administered 216,000 doses along with other brands provided by the national government.
However, the city government refused to accept the 434,000 doses delivered to the DOH last year since Bacolod already exceeded its target vaccination coverage.
Dilag said that the pharmaceutical firm is incumbent to present the necessary papers and he added that the city is looking at whether it was legal and if it wasn’t highly disadvantageous to the part of the city.
If the pharmaceutical firm can comply with all the legal paperwork along with the number of vaccines that have expired (at the Department of Health) and those that have not, the city doesn’t see any reason not to pay. If the firm can comply with the requirements asked from them then this can be resolved, Dilag added.*
