Private firms are now allowed to purchase Covid-19 vaccines, but only through tripartite deals involving the government, Malacañang announced on Monday.
“Pwede na pong bumili ng bakuna ang lahat ng pribadong kumpanya kasama ang cigarette companies ayon ho sa amended implementing rules and regulations ng Covid-19 Vaccination Law subject pa rin po sa tripartite agreement kasama ng pribadong sektor,” Palace spokesman Harry Roque said in a media briefing.
Previously, the government only allowed local government units to engage in talks with vaccine manufacturers.
Roque said the government had to be involved in every vaccine procurement because vaccines were approved only for emergency use in the country, and not commercial use.
“Lahat po ng mga bakuna sa ngayon ay sakop lamang ng emergency use authorization kaya kinakailangan pa rin po na pumasok ang gobyerno sa pagbili ng mga bakunang ito sa pamamagitan nga po ng tripartite agreement,” he said.
The country has so far approved four vaccines for emergency use: Pfizer-BioNTech, Sinovac, AstraZeneca and Sputnik V.
50-50?
Roque said he was not sure if the tripartite deals would require private firms to donate 50 percent of their procured vaccines to the government.
“Sa tingin ko po kung ang gagamitin pong dokumento ay ang tripartite agreement, e mayroon pa rin pong donasyon sa gobyerno, but I could be wrong, kasi pupuwede na maamyendahan iyong tripartite agreement, iyong model form as a result of the passage of the law.”
The country has so far received 1.125 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines from Sinovac and AstraZeneca. All were donations. John Ezekiel J. Hirro