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P70-B unprogrammed budget for COVID vaccine purchase solid funding -- Angara
P70-B unprogrammed budget for COVID vaccine purchase solid funding -- Angara
Sen. Juan Edgardo "Sonny" Angara assured Thursday that the P70-billion unprogrammed budget for the procurement of COVID-19 vaccines that Congress allocated under the proposed P4.5-trillion national budget for 2021 can be considered “solid funding.”
Angara made this assurance following concerns of other lawmakers that only P2.5-billion of the P72.5-billion allocated for the purchase of the vaccines has immediate funding, while the bulk of the funds will be lodged as standby funds.
“The P70-billion is solid funding also, and just because it’s under the unprogrammed funds doesn’t mean it’s not solid funding,” Angara said in an ANC interview.
Angara explained these funds are not dependent just on tax collections.
"In fact, it’s not tax collections. It’s non-tax collections or non-fiscal collections so meaning that’s the fees you collect like at the LTO (Land Transportation Office) and things like that, the fees the treasury collects on interests,” he said.
Angara also said that the country’s economic managers themselves have, likewise, assured that the P70-billion budget is “very reachable."
But if the government is able to buy a vaccine priced at P600, Angara said an estimated 100 million Filipinos and more can be vaccinated against the coronavirus.
That is because, he said, on top of the P72.5-billion for the vaccines under the budget, an additional P10-billion will be funded under the Bayanihan to Recover as One Act or Bayanihan 2.
"So if you add that to the P72.5-billion here in the 2021 budget, you are talking about P82.5 billion, and if you are talking about a vaccine that you can obtain at around P600, you are talking about over 100 million persons getting vaccinated,” Angara said.
Such budget, he said, “would seem sufficient,” but certain variables may play in the procurement.
"There are questions that you and I cannot decide or solve because we don’t have the available information. What are these pieces of information? How much has been promised to us as supply? When will it arrive? Things like that. Where will it be stored?” he said.
“These are things that are all moving targets because there are so many factors at play. All governments of the world are talking to the vaccine manufacturers, trying to obtain adequate supply,” he said.
Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. had earlier said that the government hopes to vaccinate 60 to 70 percent of Filipinos against COVID-19. According to Galvez, such percentage is enough to trigger herd immunity within three to five years.
Thus, Angara said the proposed budget for the vaccines could be enough to meet this target.
“If we are looking at the indicative figure of 60 percent – I think that was the figure discussed, 60 percent of the population needs to be vaccinated – then I think there are sufficient funds there,” he noted.
Sen. Pia Cayetano, vice chairperson of the Senate Committee on Finance, assured Wednesday that the panel took into consideration the prices of the COVID-19 vaccines the government will procure before they pass the 2021 national budget measure.
"As (it was) correctly pointed out, the vaccines range in prices, anywhere from P610, that is the AstraZeneca brand, for the two doses, that is the cheapest," Cayetano manifested during the Senate plenary session.
She said the most expensive vaccine is by Sinopharm priced at P8,845 for two doses. Next was Moderna's at P4,500 each.
"So, let’s just use the P610 one, which is the cheapest. Let me first point out that time and again, the IATF (Inter-Agency Task Force) and also DoH (Department of Health) told us that the objective really is to get from different brands," Cayetano said.
But the biggest issue, she pointed out, is the country's access to the vaccines.
"So inasmuch as WHO (World Health Organization) states that 60 to 70 percent of the population should be vaccinated for herd immunity, the question is how soon can we access vaccines to cover the 60-70 percent?”
"And I think the best target that I heard, this may have changed, I agree with everyone that it is fluid. The closest we might be able to get is 25 percent," Cayetano said.