FINDING ANSWERS Former Senator
Atty. Joey Lina Every New Year always brings forth hope and despite the raging pandemic, 2021 inspires a wide sense of optimism among Filipinos. Throughout the years, nine out of 10 Filipinos across every social class and geographic area have expressed a positive outlook as a fresh year starts to unfold. The latest Pulse Asia survey had the same result – optimism prevails among 91 percent of the Philippine population. Such perennial sense of optimism is borne out of our deep faith and trust in God who, as Pope Francis assures, always gives hope. “God always opens doors, He never closes them. He is the Father who opens doors for us,” he said. A positive outlook fueled by a deep sense of hope for better times ahead can be so overwhelming that it sustains enthusiasm to push on and face life’s challenges even amid many daunting odds. Indeed, so overwhelming can hope become that despair vanishes as a positive outlook sustains mental health which strengthens physical well-being and boosts our capacity to fight the virus. There’s no doubt that the crippling effects of the coronavirus pandemic has brought about so much despair among many helpless Filipinos whose lives and livelihoods were devastated in 2020. A clearer picture of the economic devastation started to unravel in June that year when the Philippine Statistics Authority reported an all-time high of 17.7 percent joblessness rate, based on findings that the number of unemployed Filipinos ballooned to 7.3 million in April. The unemployment rate continued to rise as more businesses closed shop. “This is a record high in the unemployment rate reflecting the effects of the economic shutdown to the Philippine labor market due to COVID-19,” according to National Statistician Claire Dennis Mapa who said then that the last time the jobless rate was double-digit was in the second quarter of 1991. As the rate of joblessness grew, so did the rate of hunger. By September last year, one in every three Filipinos went hungry. The alarming hunger rate of 30.7 percent, affecting 7.6 million families in the country, has reached an all-time high among all the surveys done by the Social Weather Stations in the past 22 years. After all the economic devastation and turbulent times experienced in 2020, we are now seeing the light at the end of the tunnel with the emergence of the much-awaited vaccines to immunize and protect people from COVID-19. The good news about vaccines is singlehandedly turning despair into hope for people around the world. Thus, 2021 promises to be a year when the bleak situation starts to change for the better, thanks to the technological and the scientific breakthroughs that brought about the various brands of the much-awaited COVID-19 vaccine. But knowing vaccines are finally available to the world, and our country getting hold of them, do not necessarily go hand in hand. A lot needs to be done to make the vaccine accessible in the Philippines. Ensuring the vaccine’s availability here to promote herd immunity and protect Filipinos is certainly a giant step towards our country’s economic recovery when businesses could start to operate at near normal capacity while workers’ safety and health are safeguarded. Without the vaccine, businesses certainly cannot go all out to attain economic recovery. I had an enlightening discussion with Presidential Adviser on Entrepreneurship Joey Concepcion last Sunday in my Teleradyo program Sagot Ko ‘Yan and it certainly is reassuring to learn that big business is helping a lot towards  availability of vaccines. He said the private sector has entered a deal with government for vaccine procurement and donation of at least 2.6 million doses (reportedly worth around P700 million), with the understanding that half would be used for the private workers. He added that private businesses are pushing for the procurement of an additional 3.8 million doses on top of the 2.6 million agreed earlier. Sec. Concepcion stressed that everything hinges on the vaccines and the government certainly needs to prioritize its availability to pave the way for economic recovery. He said other measures such as providing stimulus funds to help MSMEs would not be as effective in the long term especially on businesses that rely on heavy clientele traffic. While it is commendable that the private business sector is helping make vaccines available, many have raised questions: Is the COVID-19 vaccine really a priority of government? If so, why is the bulk of the 2021 budget for vaccines (P70 billion of P72.5 billion) in the “unprogrammed funds” category that’s dependent on availability of revenues and excess collections? And why is the vaccine budget significantly less than the estimated P150 billion needed to immunize an ideal percentage of the population to achieve the so-called herd immunity? Also, why do we have to resort to more foreign borrowings for vaccines? Is there really no room in the P4.5-trillion 2021 General Appropriations Act (GAA) for a larger allocation to procure vaccines? Published reports said the Philippines is seeking a fresh loan of $300 million from the World Bank and $325 million from the Asian Development Bank for vaccines.  A total of P82.5 billion has been appropriated for vaccines in 2021, consisting of P72.5 billion in the GAA and P10 billion in Bayanihan 2 Act. Of the P82.5 billion in the 2021 budget, only P2.5 billion is programmed and assured of funding from government revenues. Some senators said it is unclear how the rest of the amount will be funded, as they expressed doubts on excess revenue collections given the pandemic. Amid the uncertainties, it is essential for government to strive for a sufficient supply of vaccines here. With its availability to pave the way towards economic recovery, 2021 would be brighter and healthier for Filipinos. Happy New Year! Email: [email protected]