MANILA – Malacañang blasted opposition senator Franklin Drilon and Vice President Leni Robredo regarding their comments on the limited allocation of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccines under the 2021 national budget.
Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said Drilon and Robredo must know how budgets work following their criticisms on the P72.5-billion allocation for the proposed P4.5-trillion national budget for 2021.
“Malayo pa ang eleksyon. Itigil ang pulitika,” Roque said during a virtual presser Monday. “Paulit-ulit na natin sinabi na tayo ay makakautang na sa multilateral sources, sa bilateral sources para sa P72.5 billion na kakailanganin.”
“Kaya nilalagay sa budget ‘yan, utangin man, kung hindi nasa budget, hindi pupuwedeng gagastusin and I am sure Sen. Drilon knows about this already having been a veteran lawmaker, the same thing goes for the Vice President,” he added.
The Ilonggo senator earlier expressed concern on the lack of a definite revenue source for the purchase of COVID-19 vaccines, while Robredo also called for urgent efforts to procure and provide safe vaccines for Filipinos.
In a related development, vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. said negotiations with COVID-19 producers are being sped up even as 80 percent of the available supply has already been procured by western countries.
“‘Yun po ang nakikita po natin, na karamihan po sa mga ating pirmahan ay pinipilit po namin magkaroon kami ng initial success this December and mostly mga January,” Galvez said in the same a virtual briefing.
“Sa ngayon po, most probably baka magkaroon po tayo ng vaccine sa first quarter, most probably March, and then also mga second tranche is second quarter, third quarter, tsaka fourth quarter but we are expecting ‘yung volumes ng ating mga vaccine will be coming at early third quarter,” he added.
Galvez, who also serves as chief implementer National Task Force Against COVID-19, the country is in the advanced stages of negotiations with five companies, and exploratory talks are ongoing with five others.
Galvez further said the country is looking to finalize negotiations with Chinese pharmaceutical firm Sinovac Biotech this week for a possible supply agreement as his meeting with Sinovac representatives last Friday was “very substantial.”/PN
