Probinsyano Ako Party-list Rep. Jose Singson Jr. (File photo) MANILA - The chairman of the House Committee on Public Accounts on Monday stressed the need to make a more economical, yet equally effective, child pneumonia vaccines accessible to the public to help save the government billions of pesos in losses. Probinsyano Ako Party-list Rep. Jose Singson Jr. made the call as he urged Congress to look into the so-called "bakuna budol", which pertains to the controversy surrounding the pneumococcal vaccine procurement. "It is usually the people who are marginalized that are at risk for getting pneumonia. Procurement issues with the vaccine are roadblocks to our goal of universal healthcare and so we need to get to the root of this issue," Singson said. He said providing the existence of a monopoly shows that the "government is losing billions of pesos while possibly depriving more children to be vaccinated against child pneumonia." Singson cited the World Hea
A committee chairman in the House of Representatives has warned the government against an alleged “monopoly” that might be facilitating overspending for costlier pneumonia vaccines for children.
MANILA - The chairman of the House Committee on Public Accounts on Monday expressed support for the Senate blue ribbon committee's report on the Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corp. investigation. In a statement, Probinsyano Ako Party-list Rep. Jose Singson Jr. said his panel would have submitted recommendations that are nearly identical to those presented by the Senate blue ribbon panel in its probe on the alleged irregularities in the procurement of Covid-19 supplies at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2022. The Senate report recommended the filing of charges against several Pharmally executives, former presidential economic adviser Michael Yang, and former procurement head Christopher Lloyd Lao. Singson said the public accounts panel was able to hold three hearings before it decided to suspend the proceedings. "Based on what we were able to gather during the three hearings we held, I believe we would have presented similar findings as what the Gordon panel released. Our ini
The House of Representatives will summon pharmaceutical companies over the reported market overpricing of pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCVs). In a news statement following the Kapihan ng Samahang Plaridel forum, House Committee on Public Accounts Chairman Jose Singson Jr. said he and four other lawmakers have already filed a House resolution, which aims…
MANILA - A bill prohibiting the exportation of black sand and its derivatives in its raw form to other countries hurdled committee level at the House of Representatives. In an online meeting on Wednesday, the House Committee on Natural Resources, chaired by Cavite Rep. Elpidio Barzaga Jr. approved the substitute bill to House Bill 6321 or the proposed Black Sand Processing Act. Under the bill, black sand mining or trading entities may only export processed products or raw materials that have undergone advanced processing. Probinsyano Ako party-list Rep. Jose Singson Jr., author of the bill, said the Philippines is one of the major sources of black sand, which is being exported to other countries in its raw form. Singson noted that the many industrial uses for the materials produced from black sand mining results in a massive international demand, which in turn results into high profits for those engaged in black sand mining. He said the importation of these processed products are very