Lacson hits ‘ambitious’ projection of vaccinating total adult population by end of October

Senator Panfilo Lacson during the Senate committee on finance hearing on the 2022 national expenditure program.

MANILA, Philippines — Senator Panfilo “Ping” Lacson on Thursday slammed the projection that all of the adult population could be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by the end of October as there are supply challenges.

“Precisely, mayroong problema sa supply… So, very ambitious ‘yung projection that we can inoculate ‘yung total adult population by October 31,” Lacson told members of the Development  Budget Coordinating Committee during the Senate committee on finance’s hearing on the proposed P5-trillion 2022 national budget.

(Precisely, we have a problem with supply. So, the projection that we can inoculate the total adult population by October 31 is very ambitious.)

Citing data from the Department of Health, Lacson said that a total of 36.2 million doses have been administered as of September 7. He noted that the country needs to have 195 million vaccine doses to fully inoculate Filipinos.

“The reason why I’m mentioning this kasi mayroong additional na P45 [billion] — of course, unprogrammed fund ito — ‘yung hinihingi para sa booster shots,” Lacson explained.

(The reason why I’m mentioning this is because of the additional P45 billion — of course, this has an unprogrammed fund — for the booster shots.)

“Baka naman pwedeng magamit pa natin yung P45.7 [billion] next year sa ibang purpose kasi baka ‘di rin magagamit,” Lacson raised as the country may not be able to fully immunize the whole adult population yet by the end of the year.

(We could use the P45.7 billion next year for another purpose because we may not be able to use it.)

Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez during the Senate committee on finance hearing on the 2022 national expenditure program.

Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez answered: “As I mentioned several times, our constraint is not the ability to inject. Our constraint is the supply. It is not that we have not ordered it. It is not that we don’t have any money. It is the ability of the pharmas to deliver.”

“I’m just saying that we have all the funds to pay for the vaccines that we have ordered and the balance is around 140 million. If we get all the 195 million, we will be able to vaccinate 100 million people because not all are two-doses, some are one-dose only,” he added.

Lacson also noted that targeting to vaccinate 100 million Filipinos will only leave the age group of zero to four without a jab.

Dominguez explained: “Of the 195 million we are expecting, about 24 and a half million are ordered by the private sector. We have ordered only [170 million].”

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