The Philippines could have P4.7 billion worth of additional COVID-19 vaccines in its supply had the Department of Health (DOH) spent the amount it borrowed from the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
At the resumption of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee's inquiry on the annual audit reports on the DOH Wednesday, August 25, Rowena Lora of the department's Financial Management Service confirmed that some P4.7 billion in foreign loans for the purchase of COVID-19 vaccines and pandemic response have not been utilized.
"Ang total po ng foreign loans na hindi po nagamit no'ng 2020 ay P4.7 billion. Tama po 'yon, kasi 'yon po sana 'yong pambili ng bakuna (The total amount of unused foreign loans in 2020 was P4.7 billion. That is right, because the funds was supposedlyfor buying vaccines)," Lora said during Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon's inquiry on the funds that the DOH failed to disburse
The funds came from the World Bank and the ADB, she said.
The disclosure comes after the Commission on Audit (COA) flagged the DOH's failure to obligate P11.8 billion in COVID-19 response funds in 2020.
Citing the Commission on Audit's (COA) report, Drilon said P3.4 billion of the foreign borrowings was set aside for the procurement of coronavirus vaccines, while P1.3 billion was supposedly for programs addressing the coronavirus emergency.
Lora confirmed the figures.
But she corrected unspent amount to P10.8 billion, saying their P1-billion obligation was not included in the COA report due to "timing difference".
Lora also conceded that the DOH failed to obligate some P975 million of its allocation under the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act of Bayanihan 1.
The department likewise did not spend over P3.7 billion intended for continuous COVID-19 testing and to augment the number of health care workers in the country, Drilon said.
"These are huge amounts of money which remain idle," the senator lamented.
For 2022, the executive department sought a P242-billion appropriation for the DOH, P93.78 billion of which to be set aside for the agency's COVID-19 response efforts.
P45.3 billion in unprogrammed appropriations was also proposed for the purchase of vaccine booster shots, as health authorities have yet to rule its necessity for a third dose.
As of August 20, over 13 million have been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus. This is 18.5 percent of the 77 million eligible population that is targetted to be inoculated by the government by year-end to achieve heard immunity.