This picture taken on May 23, 2020 shows a tray with doses of a COVID-19 novel coronavirus vaccine candidate ready for trial on monkeys at the National Primate Research Center of Thailand at Chulalongkorn University in Saraburi. – After conclusive results on mice, Thai scientists from the centre have begun testing a COVID-19 novel coronavirus vaccine candidate on monkeys, the phase before human trials. (Photo by Mladen ANTONOV / AFP)
MANILA, Philippines — The government is ready to dispose some of its assets to fund the purchase coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines once it becomes available in the market, Malacañang said Friday.
“Basta po meron nang gamot diyan sa COVID-19, basta may bakuna, ibebenta natin lahat ng ari-arian ng ating gobyerno para makabili po tayo para sa ating mga kababayan,” presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said in a televised briefing.
(When a vaccine against COVID-19 becomes available, we will sell government assets and purchase vaccines for our countrymen.)
“Iyan po ang paninindigan ni Presidente—buhay muna bago ari-arian,” he added.
(That’s the stand of the President — life before assets.)
Roque issued the statement as the first out of four COVID-19 vaccines being tested by US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech reportedly showed “encouraging” results.
Preliminary data showed that the said vaccine triggered an “immune system response” and prepared the body to fight the virus.
President Rodrigo Duterte himself has repeatedly expressed support to efforts to development of a vaccine against COVID-19, even bringing it up during the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Summit.
Duterte even offered a P10 million reward to any Filipino who can discover a vaccine against the novel coronavirus.
The President earlier said that he would lift all quarantine measures and restrictions once a vaccine is developed and made available to the public. -with a report from Agence-France Presse