IN his pre-recorded speech to the nation on Monday, President Rodrigo Duterte did not mince words about how the government has been finding it very hard to sustain the huge expenses of the official COVID-19 response now running in the billions of pesos.
According to the President, government expenses incurred in connection with the pandemic response have “reached almost a trillion” pesos, and the most the we have attained is to lower the incidence of day-to-day infections, increase the capacity of our ICUs, hospital wards, and quarantine isolation facilities.
The coronavirus called SARS-CoV-2 is still very much around, and there is no telling when the world will be able to declare victory over the pathogen. In fact, more and more variants of the original Wuhan coronavirus 2019 have appeared in various places, such as the United Kingdom, France, South Africa, Brazil, the Philippines and India, each with malevolent characteristics different from the others. It was reported that the one from India is the most virulent of all.
‘It is OK if Duterte will beg for and borrow funds, or even sell some government lands, just assure us that the proceeds of these efforts won’t be stolen from the nation’s coffers.’
Not every Filipino is satisfied with just motherhood statements coming from the President about the national government’s COVID-19 expenses. So there is a need to scrutinize the figures.
We know that the government has a total of P8.99 billion in funds under the Bayanihan 1 and Bayanihan 2. These two prime pieces of legislation are where all government offices are drawing their funds for the epidemic response. According to the Department of Health (DOH), it has used P4.36 billion of its Bayanihan 1 budget for the purchase of medical equipment such as mechanical ventilators, biological safety cabinets, etc. Meanwhile, the government used P3.88 billion for the construction of temporary isolation and quarantine facilities, field hospitals, dormitories for health frontline workers and expansion of the government’s health care capacity.
The vaccine expenses are still to be priced in. In the 2021 national budget, Congress allocated funds to cover vaccines for only 3 percent of the population, a far cry from Duterte’s requested 20 percent. The DOH had said that the government will need some P12 billion to buy COVID-19 vaccines just for the frontline workers, where less than P3 billion was available. It is good that the government’s vaccination program started with vaccine doses from China and the COVAX Facility of the World Health Organization.
The Chief Executive refused to dance around and said it straight. “Baka magkatotoo sabi mo ipagbili ko talaga ‘yong mga propriedad ng gobyerno kasi pawala nang pawala na ‘yong pera,” he said. (What you said may become a reality. I might be forced to sell government assets because money is fast dwindling.)
It is OK if Duterte will beg for and borrow funds, or even sell some government lands, just assure us that the proceeds of these efforts won’t be stolen from the nation’s coffers.
