Additional P5.5-B budget for COVID-19 vaccine sought

MANILA, Philippines — A bigger budget may be allocated to procure the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine.

In an interview with reporters on Monday, Albay 2nd District Rep. Joey Salceda said the “small committee” in the House of Representatives tasked to receive and resolve amendments to the proposed 2021 budget approved P20 billion-worth of “institutional amendments” to next year’s expenditures plan.

This includes P5.5 billion specifically for COVID-19 vaccines.

“If you look at the context, very obvious eh di ba. Like why is the number, the biggest item is vaccines, actually. I don’t think there will be any argument that you need to fund vaccines beyond the P 2 billion,” Salceda said.

During the budget deliberations in the House of Representatives, several lawmakers have slammed the insufficient fund allocation for the procurement of the COVID-19 vaccine to cover 20 million Filipinos.

For instance, Marikina City 2nd Dist. Rep. Stella Luz Quimbo, an economist, noted that if each vaccine for an individual costs P600, this means that the P2.5 billion budget for the vaccine for 2021 would only cover 3.9 million Filipinos.

She emphasized that this would be way short of President Rodrigo Duterte’s target of inoculating 20 million Filipinos against the new coronavirus.

In case the budget is still not enough, Salceda said the government could also tap the national disaster risk reduction and management fund (NDRRMF) or the calamity fund amounting to P20 billion.

Salceda explained that the Republic Act 10121 or the Philippine Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act of 2010 has defined pandemic as a form of calamity.

In a speech on October 14, Duterte said that while the government already has the money to buy COVID-19 vaccines once they become available, it is still not enough.

“I have the money already for the vaccine, but I will still have to look for more money because you know there are now 130 million Filipinos. And to me ideally, all should have the vaccine — no exception,” Duterte said. [ac]