By Alex P. Vidal
“The single most important ingredient in the recipe for success is transparency because transparency builds trust.”—Denise Morrison
WE are glad that former Iloilo fifth district Rep. Rolex Suplico has sounded the alarm on the possible loopholes if the Local Government Units (LGU) are pushed and allowed to purchase directly the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) vaccines without any public bidding.
In an opinion we wrote on December 21, 2020, meanwhile, we exhorted the LGUs to reject the proposal made by vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. for the LGUs to purchase their own supply of Covid-19 vaccines.
We wrote: “It’s unbelievable that the country’s ‘vaccine czar’ has thought of giving this colossal responsibility of scrambling for the purchase of Covid-19 vaccines to the LGUs even as an international effort to acquire vaccines for low-and middle-income countries has been struggling to gain traction.”
“Secretary Galvez should leave the LGUs alone. The local chief executives are already encumbered and fighting tooth and nail against hard-headed violators of social distancing and mask-wearing protocols in their areas.”
“It may be too stressful and cumbersome for the governors, mayors, and village chiefs to be given this additional task reserved for our health department.”
One major loophole is it could be “prone to abuse” as Suplico warned in a report by Daily Guardian’s Joseph B.A. Marzan on Monday.
(https://dailyguardian.com.ph/ex-lawmaker-warns-of-abuse-in-covid-vaccine-purchase/).
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Suplico is worried that the rich transactions, if left to the LGU’s volition without proper check and balance and if the hugely essential bidding process is waved, can be tainted by partisan politics since the 2022 national and local elections are already forthcoming.
Suplico, who aired his concerns in the Daily Guardian on Air hosted by the paper’s editor-in-chief Francis Allan Angelo on February 12, said: “The problem there is that they are skipping the requirement of public bidding which is in our procurement law. For me, if we talk about the wisdom of those proposals, those are somewhat disadvantageous to the people. Why? It would be difficult to allow it without public bidding, there might be ‘kickback’. More so, the elections are near.”
The former lawmaker has enumerated numerous concerns and they should not be taken for granted by authorities concerned.
In his opinion, the Department of Health (DOH) is more capable than LGUs to determine vaccine safety and handling procedures.
Suplico explained: “The DOH has the capacity to look at the vaccines to be procured and state that it would be for the betterment of all. It would be difficult for the mayor and the municipal health officer to determine that. They don’t have the capacity for that. We have to diminish in the minds of the people that there is kickback in the procurement of the vaccines.”
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Let’s make this clear: Former U.S. President Donald Trump was acquitted in the second impeachment trial not because he had no direct participation in the January 6 riot in the Washington D.C.’s Capitol Hill that killed five people, including a federal police officer.
In order to convict Mr. Trump, the senators, who sat as the jurors, needed 67 votes but could collect only 57 (50 Democrats, seven Republicans), while 43 all-Republican senators registered a “not guilty” vote.
This means the 43 Republican senator-jurors saved him.
President Joseph Biden was correct when he emphasized that “the substance of the charge was not in dispute.”
“This sad chapter in our history has reminded us that democracy is fragile,” Mr. Biden said in a statement.
“That it must always be defended. That we must be ever vigilant. That violence and extremism has no place in America. And that each of us has a duty and responsibility as Americans, and especially as leaders, to defend the truth and to defeat the lies.”
Most senators voted to hold Trump guilty on one charge of inciting an insurrection, but the 57-43 tally fell 10 votes short of the two-thirds majority required for conviction. In all, seven Republicans voted to convict the former president, making Saturday’s vote the most bipartisan in a presidential impeachment trial in U.S. history.
(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo)
