Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon was in disbelief after President Rodrigo Duterte said the government cannot provide indemnity to makers of coronavirus vaccines – months after asking Congress to pass a law on it. 

“Unbelievable… Duterte certified the law as urgent. We passed it. He signed it. He said there is need for a law. There is a law,” said Drilon in a text message on Tuesday, March 23.

On Monday night, March 22, a seemingly confused Duterte said he refused to provide indemnity to COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers, arguing that such power rests only with Congress.

The President also said he did not want the government assuming liability for the vaccines to be procured by private companies and local governments.

But it was Duterte who had asked Congress to hasten the passage of the quick vaccine procurement law, which sets a P500 million indemnification fund to shoulder the medical costs of Filipinos should they experience “adverse effects” after getting vaccinated for COVID-19. 

Republic Act (RA) No. 11525 or COVID-19 Vaccination Program Act of 2021 – which Duterte signed into law on February 26 – expressly states that manufacturers “shall be immune from suit and liability under Philippine laws with respect to all claims arising out of, related to, or resulting from the administration or use of a COVID-19 vaccine…except arising from willful misconduct and gross negligence.”

Drilon said it had been vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr and Health Secretary Francisco Duque III who initially proposed to put an “unqualified” indemnity for manufacturers in the bill. 

But the senator amended this proposal so that vaccine makers would still be made liable for any damages arising from “gross negligence and willful misconduct” – an amendment that was included in the final version of RA 11525. 

Senator Imee Marcos tried to qualify her ally Duterte’s latest pronouncement, saying that “perhaps” what the President was really opposing was the call by some vaccine makers for a “blanket immunity” from suit. 

But Marcos conceded that under the law, any vaccine recipient can file claims for damages caused by a manufacturer’s negligence.

“No one can be deprived of their individual and private rights to file suit,” said Marcos in a statement. 

The Philippine government had to scramble to create the indemnification fund since it was among the requirements to gain COVID-19 vaccine doses from pharmaceutical companies and the COVAX global facility. 

Under indemnification programs, governments agree that distributing entities will not be held liable for unexpected adverse events. This is a risk governments absorb during the pandemic when granting emergency use approval for COVID-19 vaccines.

The Duterte administration has been facing widespread criticism over the pace of the COVID-19 vaccine rollout, which officially began on March 1 and remains limited to medical frontliners. – Rappler.com