CAGAYAN de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez yesterday said the Department of Health (DOH) should include an allocation for a vaccine for COVID-19 in its 2021 proposed budget so it could be at the head of the line when vaccine becomes widely available in the market.
Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano earlier declared that the House of Representatives will act with dispatch to ensure that funding for the procurement of a vaccine will be made available.
“I am suggesting that the DOH already incorporate in its budget proposal its estimated funding requirement for the doses the country needs to protect our people from coronavirus,” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez said it is the DOH, its people and allied agencies that have the expertise to come up with estimates based on institutional knowledge as to how much Congress should appropriate for the purpose.
“We will have to rely on them especially considering that the COVID-19 vaccine is yet to be found, though several countries and pharmaceutical companies are racing to develop it,” he said.
Rodriguez noted that the executive branch at this time should have already put together the proposed 2021 national budget ready for submission in time for the convening of the second regular session of Congress on July 27.
Budget and finance officials have announced that the ceiling for the 2021 purse is set at P4.3 trillion or P200 billion more than this year’s P4.1 trillion.
Likewise Rodriguez explained that if the DOH needs more time to make the necessary tweaking of its budgetary figures, the House can allow it more time as adjustments may still be introduced while committee deliberations on the expenditures program are already ongoing.
Cayetano has said that he prefers that that funds be already appropriated so the government can move fast once a vaccine is approved for wide distribution.
“What if there is a vaccine and they won’t supply unless you pay at once? So, the funds should already be available in the budget,” Cayetano said.
Barangay Health Wellness party-list Rep. Angelica Natasha Co, meanwhile, called on the DOH and the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) to raise the minimum health standards being enforced to bring down the rate of infection citing the gradual opening of public transportation and commercial activities.
The lawmaker said that the existing system needs to be upgraded to keep up with the demand of the realities on the ground.
Among the changes she recommended were the setting up of additional handwashing stations in all major transport terminals instead of just spraying rubbing alcohol on the palms of commuters; higher standards for the quality of face masks for work areas with higher density of people; and open window transportation as opposed to enclosed air-conditioned vehicles that re-circulate air.
“With higher standards, there must be stricter enforcement and monitoring. Considering the growing preponderance of expert opinion on airborne transmission especially in enclosed spaces, requiring the better kinds of face masks is necessary,” she said.
