Philippines Ready to Spend Up to P73-B on Procurement of COVID-19 Vaccine: Budget Chief

MANILA – The government is willing to spend up to 73,000 million pesetas in the acquisition of vaccines against the coronavirus to achieve “herd immunity,” said the country’s budget chief.

At a public press conference on Saturday, Department of Budget and Management Secretary Wendel Avisado said the country currently has P10 billion in reserve funds for vaccine procurement under Bayanihan 2, while there is an initial budget of P2.5 billion dedicated to the acquisition of vaccines under the proposed national budget for 2021.

The budget of 73 billion pesos will be enough to vaccinate about 60 million Filipinos, Avisado said.

“In the last report of [Finance chief] “Sonny Domínguez, in our last meeting, said our government is ready to spend up to P73 billion so that we can vaccinate 60 million Filipinos or more to achieve herd immunity,” Avisado said.

(The report of the Chief of Finance, Sonny Domínguez, during our last meeting, said that the government is willing to spend up to P73 billion to vaccinate about 60 million Filipinos, to achieve herd immunity).

The Food and Drug Administration said it will have approved a COVID-19 vaccine candidate for emergency use by January.

President Rodrigo Duterte previously issued an order allowing FDA emergency use authorization for COVID-19 vaccines and drugs.

Britain previously approved BioNTech-Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine, while China and Russia previously allowed emergency use of their own vaccines.

A lawmaker previously said that at least P140 billion was needed to get herd immunity.

But Avisado said that the government is finding other ways to finance the purchase of vaccines, such as obtaining loans from the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank.