How much are the vaccines?
: Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon, during the Committee of the Whole hybrid hearing Tuesday, June 15, 2021, asks officials to disclose the agreements that were contracted by the government with pharmaceutical companies in the procurement of COVID-19 vaccines using public funds. Drilon stressed that the Constitution mandates that these agreements should be transparent and that the use of public funds should be audited by the Commission on Audit. Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III, in his short presentation, said the government has secured 184.7 million doses of vaccines amounting to P73.56 billion through the General Appropriations Act, loans, and those coming from local government units and the private sector. Based on the figures, Dominguez said the average cost of the vaccine is P568 per dose, excluding the logistic cost of P48. However, he explained that he could not reveal the exact price of the vaccines in a public forum such as the Senate hearing due to the non-disclosure agreements the government had signed with vaccine manufacturers. Drilon then asked that copies of the supply agreements the Philippines had signed be submitted to the committee in an executive session. (Screen grab/Senate PRIB)