Party-list Cong. Jericho Nograles on Tuesday bared that foreign lobby has been allegedly influencing the Department of Health (DOH) over the country’s procurement of COVID-19 vaccines.
Nograles made the remarks amid the circulating draft administrative order that would supposedly restrict businesses involved in tobacco, formula milk, and “other industries in conflict with the interest of public health” from procuring vaccines against the deadly coronavirus.
According to Nograles, “foreign money has been influencing policy making in the DOH for quite some time” through Joint Memorandum Circular (JMC) 2010-01 issued by the Civil Service Commission (CSC) and the health department in 2010—the same year DOH received a huge financial grant from the US-based anti-tobacco advocacy group, the Bloomberg Initiative.
The Bloomberg Initiative is mostly funded by the Bloomberg Philanthropies, an NGO founded by American billionaire and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
During last week’s congressional inquiry over the country’s vaccine procurement, Nograles revealed that “at least US$2 million in lobby money that has influenced policy coming from Bloomberg alone.”
Coincidentally, it was incumbent Health Sec. Francisco Duque III, then the chairman of the CSC, who crafted the said JMC.
The lawmaker explained JMC 2010-01 singles out the tobacco industry and creates special rules for government employees detailing how they should interact with representatives from the tobacco industry, including small tobacco growing farmers from our northern regions.
Nograles stressed that aside from tobacco, Bloomberg Philanthropies “actively lobby against the alcohol, sugar and milk industry and provide millions of pesos to government regulators in exchange for the implementation of their agenda.”
The proposed restriction was obviously pushed on the basis of Duque’s deal with Bloomberg and it showed that DOH policies “have already been compromised by foreign money,” according to Nograles, representative of PBA Party-list group.
“This JMC is an unlawful and unconstitutional memorandum that has remained unchecked until today. It’s time that we should look into this and find out what happened with the Bloomberg money,” Nograles said.
Nograles reminded Duque and the agency not to allow bias against certain industries to dictate the health policies at this critical time, adding that it “should welcome anything which could help in the vaccination of as many Filipinos possible instead of wasting time and energy on absurdity, like banning certain industries from securing their own vaccines.”
If the DOH proposal had been adopted, companies like San Miguel Corporation, the entire Lucio Tan Group, Puregold, Nestlé, Destileria Limtuaco and all soft drinks and alcoholic beverage producers would have been prevented from procuring vaccines for their employees.
“These businesses are legitimate and do not deserve this kind of treatment from the DOH. Anyone and anybody who is willing to help in the government’s mass vaccination program must be welcomed and appreciated by the government,” Nograles said. (JCC)
Source: Latest Politics News Today (Politics.com.ph)
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