The spokesperson of former Mayor Evelio Leonardia yesterday, clarified that no vaccines kept at the Bacolod cold storage facility have expired.
Dr. Chris Sorongon, spokesman of Leonardia, also pointed out that the tripartite agreement entered into by and between the city government, the Department of Health (DOH) and pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca, upon the prodding of the previous national government when vaccine supply was in scarcity, is a contractual obligation that must be honored.
Sorongon, however, said it is the call of the new city administration under Mayor Albee Benitez, if they will not honor the stipulations contained in the contract as they will be the one that will deal with AZ officials now.
“To set the record straight, no vaccine expired at the Bacolod storage facility. The expired vaccines he was referring to are with DOH central facility of which we have no control of and form part of the multi- lateral agreement between the national government, represented by DOH, AZ and Bacolod City,” explained Sorongon, who also served as deputy director of the then Emergency Operations Center Task Force against COVID-19.
At least 27 other cities and provinces in the country entered similar tripartite deals with AstraZeneca at a time when there was very limited supply of vaccines worldwide, he stressed.
With the encouragement and initiative from the national government to assure our respective constituents of ample supply of vaccines, LGUs that have the financial capability turned to AZ, he said.
All supplies delivered earlier by the DOH (all brands included) have been administered by the EOC and medical frontliners of the COVID-19 Vaccination Council, resulting to a 136 percent vaccination rate for Bacolod, the highest in the whole of Region 6 (Western Visayas) as certified by the DOH and reflected in the daily SITREP, Sorongon continued.
“Again, let me point out that the procurement of vaccines thru the tripartite agreement was facilitated by the national government. It was done at a time when there was no assurance of supply coming from the national government thus, as part of the emergency powers granted to chief executives and the necessity and urgency to make Bacolodnons safe from COVID, the LGU entered into this multi-partite agreement to buy vaccines. Any forward-thinking manager and seasoned crisis managers would do the same. We were among the first outside of Metro Manila to do this. Had we not resorted to this, I doubt it if Bacolod had achieved its very high vaccination rate as it has today,” Sorongon further explained.
Sorongon also dismissed claims that there was over estimation on the volume of vaccines to be procured.
“We based the computation to the target population of Bacolod City, assuming that there will not be enough vaccines or there will be delayed deliveries from the national government,” he said.
If Mayor Albee decides not to pay the balance with supplier, that’s his call. At the end of the day, he will be the one to deal with the pharmaceutical firm as the new local chief executive, he added.
Sorongon also said he cannot disclose other details of the tripartite deal because the city is duty-bound to adhere to the stipulations contained in the Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) it signed with Astra Zeneca.
“All other details beyond these were disclosures made by the current administration, not by the previous administration,” he pointed out.*
