Rep. Mike Defensor of the health sector Anakalusugan Partylist on Saturday said that foreign lenders might just have the final say on whether or not Filipinos will have access to COVID 19 vaccine.
(MANILA BULLETIN FILE PHOTO)
Defensor, vice chairman of the House Committee on Health, said that with only P2.5 billion guaranteed allocation from government next year, the procurement of COViD-19 vaccine to “save lines and livelihood is at the mercy of foreign lenders.”
“While our officials are quarreling on whether we missed the bus or dropped the ball on the Pfizer vaccine, funding for our procurement remains uncertain,” he said.
“Thanks to Congress, which, ironically, opted to prefer loans mostly from foreign sources, instead of the taxes we pay to the government, to fund the purchase of vaccines against the highly infectious new coronavirus,” Defensor said.
He noted that the bicameral conference committee that drafted the final version of the 2021 General Appropriations Act saw no need to increase Malacanang’s proposal for P2.5 billion budget for the COVID-19 immunization program.
“Assuming we can get the injections at $10 (P500) per dose, which would probably be the lowest price, and two doses are needed for complete immunization, P2.5 billion is good for 2.5 million Filipinos at an average of P1,000, or just 10 percent of the government’s initial vaccination target of 25 million to 30 million of our population,” Defensor explained.
The senior administration lawmaker said the P2.5 billion allocation for vaccine procurement will have a guaranteed tax revenue support, “meaning it will be funded out of people’s taxes as it is part of programmed appropriations in the proposed budget for next year.”
“To console a public expecting to be inoculated next year so it could soon return to normal life, the bicam relegated P72 billion for vaccines and related expenses like storage to the “un-programmed” part of the budget, he said.
“An un-programmed appropriation is available only if there is excess tax collections, there is a new tax source or there are loans. Since it is unlikely that there would be excess collections or a new tax because of the pandemic, borrowings will be the funding source for vaccine procurement,” Defensor stated.
Nevertheless the partylist lawmaker said there have been assurances from both the Department of Finance and Malacanang that loans would be resorted to make the vaccine available to a big portion of the country’s population.
“Nonetheless, the preference for borrowing over sure tax revenues to get our weary people out of this pandemic speaks volumes of our sense of priorities,” he said.
He said the bicam report shows that the panel approved realignments in the budget totaling P182.8 billion, which adjustments were later ratified by the two chambers of Congress.
“Almost P183 billion was juggled. And none of that huge amount, not even a centavo, went to vaccine acquisition,” Defensor lamented. (Ben R. Rosario)
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