President Duterte is supporting moves to accelerate the improvement of the Philippine Genome Center (PGC) and this has been discussed numerous times during the meetings of the Task Force against COVID-19, vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez, Jr. said on Wednesday, August 4.
Galvez made the remark after House Deputy Minority Leader and Bayan Muna Representative Carlos Zarate expressed hope that Malacañang will find ways to pass the Bayanihan 3 which could include sufficient budget to ramp up the country’s genome sequencing.
“The President is proactive on this matter.. he really wants to improve our genome sequencing. He has already anticipated this and because we have the best genome sequencing,” Galvez told House lawmakers in Filipino during the House Committee on Health’s public hearing.
"Rest assured, the NTF (National Task Force) will pursue this,” Galvez said, adding that they will follow up the PGC’s budget with the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).
Health Secretary Francisco Duque III also affirmed Galvez’s pronouncement and agreed there is a need to augment the PGC’s budget to effectively pursue more genome sequencing activities especially amid the emergence of new COVID-19 variants.
“Their budget is actually included in the UP (University of the Philippines) system, I just cannot recall if this is included in the proposed 2022 national budget. But you are right we need to support it with additional funds because we need it now,” Duque said also during the hearing.
According to Duque the PGC has already sequenced more than 8,000 reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction or RT-PCR results.
“They are already one of the highest in terms of absolute number, in terms of specimen sequence,” Duque said.
But the Health Secretary clarified that genome sequencing has nothing to do with clinical management for those who are already infected of COVID-19, stressing that the process works as an early warning system device designed to detect what kind of COVID-19 variant has entered the communities.
UP-PGC head Dr. Cynthia Saloma agreed with Duque and explained that those who applied for genome sequencing should not wait for the PGC’s results—which the agency can do in three days—before getting themselves treated if they suspect they are infected by COVID-19.
“It should not be treated as point of care diagnostics. Don’t wait for the result before you act on the illness. The purpose of the genome sequencing is we want to know if the virus is already here, where it came from, so we can have an informed policy,” Saloma said.
Some lawmakers, particularly Sen. Sonny Angara and Rep. Joey Salceda have said they will file a bill that would look into the current status of the PGC and strengthen its capacities so that genome sequencing can also be done in a fast manner in Visayas and Mindanao.