Sen. Hontiveros Seeks to Investigate Billions Worth of Wasted COVID-19 Vaccines

Senator Risa Hontiveros is seeking to investigate reports that billions worth of COVID-19 vaccines have gone to waste, letting them expire instead of being distributed to the community.

“Hinihimok ko ang Senado na imbestigahan ang mga nasayang at ‘di nagamit na bakuna na nagkakahalaga ng P5-13 bilyon,” she captioned in a Facebook post.

(I urge the Senate to investigate the wasted and unused vaccines worth P5-13 billion.)

Sen. Hontiveros said in a press briefing that she filed a resolution on Monday, Aug. 1, as four to 27 million unused and expired vaccine doses between April and July are bound to be thrown away.

“Mukhang magtatapon tayo ng pera at bakuna sa kabila ng mabilis na namang pagtaas ng mga COVID-19 cases,” she said.

(Seems like we’re throwing away money and vaccines despite the rapidly increasing COVID-19 cases [in the country].)

The senator aims to find out what went wrong since other pandemic-hit sectors are also seeking for help from the government, saying that the funds could’ve been allocated to them instead.

“Ang nais naming malaman sa resolusyon, saan ba nagkamali o nagkulang sa proseso? Sa pagplaplano ba or sa pagbibili? Sa roll out ba? Sa paglabas ba ng mga guidelines? Ang bottom line, sayang ang pera.”

(What we want to find out in the resolution is, where did it go wrong or lack in the process? Is it in the planning or the buying [of vaccines]? Is it the roll out? [Or the way] the guidelines were deployed? The bottom line is, money was wasted.)

“It is imperative for the government authorities to strive for less COVID-19 vaccine wastage, to accurately and transparently report vaccine wastage, identify drivers of wastage, and implement effective interventions to reduce it,” Sen. Hontiveros stated in her resolution.