To fast track the acquisition of 2019 coronavirus disease (Covid-19) vaccines, the League of Cities of the Philippines (LCP) is appealing to President Duterte to issue an executive order authorizing city mayors to make advance payments for vaccines contracted by city governments.
The appeal was contained in LCP Resolution No. 2021-01 adopted by the city mayors’ league during its general special assembly held last February 4, 2021.
Copies of the LCP resolution were furnished to the Office of the Executive Secretary, Department of Budget and Management, Commission on Audit, National Task Force on Covid-19, Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases, Department of Health, and the Department of the Interior and Local Government hoping for their endorsement to President Duterte.
In a news statement, Bacolod City Mayor Evelio Leonardia, national president of LCP said the authorization coming from the President can spin off an accelerated motion of local vaccination programs.
“We need the intervention of President Rodrigo Duterte to pursue our availment of the vaccines. With his authority to allow advance payment, our local vaccination program can be set in accelerated motion,” Leonardia said.
The LCP, during its Special General Assembly last Jan. 12 attended by 114 city mayors, agreed to partner with the national government in implementing the Covid-19 vaccination program.
The league took initiatives in encouraging cities to procure their vaccines to ensure that the target population is vaccinated.
As a result of this initiative and in coordination with the National Task Force on Covid-19, several cities have already entered into tripartite agreements with AstraZeneca pharmaceutical company under the “A Dose of Hope” program last January 14.
Pursuant to Presidential Decree 1445, local government units need an expressed authorization and issuance from President Duterte such as an executive order allowing them to procure vaccines and proceed with the required advance payment market provision in their respective agreements with the pharmaceutical companies.
Read full article on BusinessMirror