Quezon City terminates eZConsult deal with Zuellig

MANILA, Philippines — The Quezon City government on Tuesday terminated its contract with Zuellig Pharma Corp. following a series of technical glitches suffered by residents trying to book a schedule through its online vaccine registration system eZConsult.

“They reported an upgrade of their system, which supposedly could already accommodate up to 50,000 users at a time. However, the system crashed again when we opened new slots,” Mayor Joy Belmonte said.

“We have given Zuellig ample time to improve their system upon their request, and yet eZConsult crashed again for the nth time. We don’t want to cause undue stress to our constituents who only want to register for vaccination,” Belmonte added.

The city government on Tuesday opened over 55,000 new slots on eZConsult for those who want to get vaccinated.

Several users complained that they were not able to access the system, with some having to wait for hours due to a queuing system implemented for those trying to access the website.

The local government apologized to those who were affected and vowed to take all necessary steps to hold Zuellig accountable.

Belmonte earlier gave Zuellig an ultimatum to improve their system.

“Instead of making it easier, it made our registration process slower. Unfortunately, it is the people who have suffered. The efforts of our medical frontliners and volunteers who have been sacrificing for months to speed up our vaccination process have been wasted,” she said.

City legal officer Orlando Casimiro said Zuellig violated its contractual obligations to the local government after failing to improve their service as previously agreed.

Casimiro said since the start of the vaccination program in March, eZConsult has repeatedly encountered technical difficulties that led to delays in vaccine distribution.

According to the city government, Zuellig is liable to pay liquidated damages amounting to one-tenth of one percent of the contract price for every day of delay until the project is completed.

The total contract price for the project has yet to be released.

Belmonte said they are also considering filing civil and criminal cases against the company for failure to meet its contractual obligations.