Gifted with many brilliant and talented minds in the field of science and technology, Philippines is capable of developing and manufacturing its own vaccines against the COVID-19 and other emerging diseases if government pours more funds for research and development, the partylist group Act as One declared on Wednesday, Nov. 24.

During the virtual Kapihan sa Manila Bay Forum, Act as One first nominee lawyer Reynold Munsayac stressed the importance of health, particularly research and development, in view of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Munsayac said ensuring funding support for research and development is a legislative priority of Act as One once it wins seats in the House of Representatives.

“Some view R&D as mere expense but look at other countries – they have partnerships with major vaccine manufacturers so they’re able to produce vaccines inside their own territories. We should strive to do the same,” said Munsayac who headed the Presidential Commission on Good Government for five years.

Munsayac said he sees the urgent need to set up institutes related to vaccine manufacture and biology.

“We have local companies capable of producing vaccine bio-equivalents. If given enough support and funding, we have many excellent doctors and scientists who could help produce vaccines not just for COVID-19 but for other illneses as well,” he said.

The former PCGG chairman gave strong assurances that the partylist organization will push for more transparency and accountability among pulic officials as a means to combat corruption.

Citing the importance of political will, he said that during this five-year stint with PCGG, the agency was able to collect some P3.4-billion in ill-gotten wealth with an annual budget of only about P100-million.

“This puts PCGG among the agencies with the highest cost-to-recovery-efficient ratio in government,” he disclosed.

Citing the reason behind his group’s health and social justice advocacy, Munsayac said Act as One didn’t have plans of setting up a party-list group to join the elections. “We just wanted to help typhoon and Taal volcano eruption victims as early as 2019,” he said.

This all changed when COVID-19 struck the Philippines in March 2020. He said Act as One was one of the few non-government organizations that were able to support various hospitals and set up two quarantine centers – in UP Palma Hall and College of Human Kinetics in Diliman – and a temporary shelter at UP NISMED for frontliners from the Lung Center of the Philippines. Aside from providing accommodations to nurses and other health workers to help them ensure the safety of their families, Act as One also provided transportation for hospital staff to and from Lung Center, Munsayac said.

After seeing the economic and social impact of COVID-19, Act as One members and their beneficiaries all over the Philippines convinced the group’s leaders that Act as One could do much more if they join government, Congress in particular, to craft meaningful legislation to provide health and social justice for all Filipinos.