Senate President Vicente Sotto III has urged the government to study the creation of a centralized procurement system for the Department of Health (DOH) to allow local government units (LGUs) to acquire vaccines and medicines at significantly lower prices.

Sotto raised concern over the wide price gap between what the DOH pays and what suppliers charge LGUs. He noted that while the DOH can procure a vaccine for P10 per dose, the same suppliers offer the LGUs a price ranging from P100 to P150 per dose.

“There is delay or insufficiency in vaccine deliveries and some LGUs can afford to mitigate this and procure on their own. However, they cannot access the same wholesale price that is offered to the DOH by the suppliers,” Sotto said.

The Senate leader asked whether a system similar to the Procurement Service of the Department of Budget and Management (PS-DBM) could be adopted by the DOH to procure vaccines and medicines in bulk nationwide and make them available to LGUs at cost.

DOH acknowledged the proposal and described it as a “good suggestion,” noting that plans for such a system may be discussed next year.

Sotto said he believes that such procurement reforms would improve LGUs’ access to affordable vaccines and medical supplies.

On another matter, Sotto flagged what he described as the alarming proliferation of abortion services and products online, stressing that sellers have become “more aggressive” in digital platforms.

“I am asking this every year. Rising abortion services, products, medicines and other similar products all over the place. Now, they become more aggressive. We saw these posts on Facebook blatantly inquiring and selling abortion,” he said in English.

The Senate President pressed the DOH and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to detail ongoing efforts to stop these illegal practices.

“DOH and FDA, are you not monitoring this? Blatant crime and every year it is there,” he stated.