MANILA, Philippines — Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr., the country’s vaccine manager, is pushing for the passage of a law that would modernize the Philippines’ health care system and prepare it for future pandemics.
The government could improve the healthcare system just as it had improved the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), Galvez, a former AFP chief, said in a pre-recorded briefing with President Rodrigo Duterte that was televised Monday night.
“We have seen that, aside from the Universal Healthcare Law, we will hopefully have a Health Security Act under which our DOH [Department of Health] and our healthcare system will be modernized, similar to the modernization that we did with the Armed Forces of the Philippines,” Galvez said in Filipino.
“This is so that we can cope with other pandemics. By 2023, we can at least start the self-sufficiency in case another pandemic occurs,” he added.
He reiterated the possibility that the Philippines would soon become self-reliant in vaccines.
According to Galvez, during his recent visit to India, the Serum Institute there offered to help the Philippines locally produce its own vaccines.