Malacañang has reminded Vice President Leni Robredo and Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon to stop politicking especially since the 2022 elections are still a long way off.
(OPS / FILE PHOTO / MANILA BULLETIN)
Presidential spokesman Harry Roque issued the statement after the two opposition figures reportedly criticized the government’s supposed insufficient funding allocation for the purchase of the coronavirus vaccines.
Roque assured the public that the government is eyeing more than P70 billion in financing from multilateral agencies, domestic banks, and bilateral sources.
"Senator Drilon, Vice President, malayo pa po ang eleksyon, tigilan ang pulitika (Senator Drilon, Vice President, the elections are still far away. Please stop politicking)," he said during a televised press briefing.
"Paulit-ulit na po sinabi natin iyan ‘no na tayo po ay makakautang na sa multilateral sources, sa bilateral sources para po sa 72.5-billion na kakailanganin (We've repeatedly said that we will borrow from multilateral sources, from bilateral sources for the P72.5 billion needed)," he said.
Roque also said he expected Robredo and Drilon to know how the national budget works.
"I’m sure Senator Drilon knows about this already having been a veteran lawmaker, the same thing goes for the Vice President. They should know how the budget works," he said. "Kinakailangan nasa budget otherwise hindi magagastos maski ang panggagalingan ay uutangin (It must be included in the budget otherwise it cannot be used even if the funds will be borrowed)," he added.
The government earlier announced plans to buy vaccines for 60 million Filipinos to help arrest the spread of the coronavirus. Initial vaccine supply may reportedly be sourced from China.
The camp of Robredo recently criticized the government's alleged lack of urgency in making the vaccination program a priority in the 2021 national budget. Around P2.5 billion had been earmarked in the proposed outlay next year.
Drilon earlier expressed concern about the alleged inadequate funding source for the government's purchase COVID vaccines. He asked how the government plans to raise P70 billion when only P2.5 billion would be guaranteed for vaccine acquisition under the 2021 budget proposal.
Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. said the government plans to source $1 billion from Asian Development Bank (ADB) and borrow more funds from state-owned Development Bank of the Philippines, Land Bank of the Philippines, and other government corporations.
Galvez, in the same virtual press conference, said they hope the initial batch of vaccine supply will arrive in the country by March 2021. He said the volumes of vaccines are expected to come by early third quarter next year.
The government has started negotiations with pharmaceutical manufacturers including Sinovac, Pfizer and AstraZeneca for the country’s vaccine supply.