Malacañang said that while the funds are available, it is not yet the right time to discuss coronavirus (COVID-19) booster shots, saying many Filipinos still have to be vaccinated.
In his press briefing on Thursday, September 2, Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque was asked if the government was already in talks with vaccine manufacturers to secure booster shots.
In response, he said that it was not yet time to talk about getting the top-up shots.
"Sa ngayon po, nandoon pa tayo sa pagbabakuna sa buong Pilipinas (For now, we're still focused on vaccinating the entire Philippines)," Roque said.
"Nationally, nasa 18.29 percent pa lang po tayo. So tsaka na po natin pag-usapan ang mga booster shots (Nationally, we're still at 18.29 percent of the population. So let's talk about booster shots some other time)," he added.
Despite this, the Palace official assured the public that funds for procuring booster shots are included in the 2022 proposed national budget.
"All I can say is that it is in our proposed budget," Roque said.
"Kapag na-approve po ang budget na 'yan, eh 'di pupwede na pong (Once the budget is approved, then we can proceed)--- even without approval, pwede naman pong i-procure na 'yan (we can already buy them)," he added.
The government has allocated P45.4 billion for COVID-19 booster shots of 93.798 million fully vaccinated Filipinos in the proposed P5.02-trillion 2022 national budget.
Last month, Roque asked for the public's patience and wait for the country to achieve population protection before getting booster shots. His appeal came amid reports of some residents going around different local government units (LGUs) to get the additional shot.
To date, the country has administered 34,112,320 COVID-19 vaccine doses with 14,109,916 individuals receiving two shots.