The P45-billion budget requirement for buying COVID-19 vaccine booster shots is not yet funded under the proposed 2022 national budget, pending solid findings that it is essential, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) said Wednesday.
Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto welcomed the administration’s request for standby authority to buy as much as P45.4 billion worth of vaccine booster shots.
The booster shots fund is on top of the P30 billion earmarked for “drugs, medicines, vaccines” in the P157-billion Department of Health budget for 2022, Recto said.
The amount is part of the P151.6 billion in unprogrammed funds in the proposed 2022 budget, he said.
Recto said the pandemic’s “huge footprint” on the 2022 national budget proves that the “micro COVID virus” is the biggest macroeconomic assumption of next year’s spending program.
“The behavior of the virus, the direction the pandemic is heading, affects how we spend public funds,” he said.
Meanwhile, Senate President Vicente Sotto III on Wednesday urged the Duterte administration to use the funds “lying idly” in government coffers to conduct free mass COVID-19 testing.
During the continuation of the Senate probe into the DOH’s use of COVID-19 funds, Sotto underscored the need to “explore” providing free COVID-19 tests to all Filipinos, as he pointed out that the daily tally “does not” reflect the actual numbers of infected people.
“While the government is much devoted to COVID-19 vaccines, our COVID-19 testing has been somewhat neglected. There are still a lot of Filipinos who don’t want to be tested because the COVID-19 tests are expensive,” he said.
In the House of Representatives, the chairman of the appropriations panel wants the government to justify the P28.1 billion it allocated for the controversial anti-insurgency task force for 2022.
Panel chair ACT-CIS party-list Rep. Eric Go Yap said they would need clarification as to why the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) should be granted the amount, despite calls for its abolition due to alleged harassment of government critics.
Yap also said they would seek justification for the P8.6 billion sought for intelligence and confidential expenses.
Malacañang said on Tuesday terrorism defied the COVID-19 pandemic, hence it was asking for some P36 billion in intelligence, confidential, and counter-insurgency funds for next year.
Yap expects intense scrutiny of the budget, even as he allayed fears that it may be used by politicians seeking posts in 2022.
The party-list solon also assured that the adverse findings of the Commission on Audit (COA) against various government agencies won’t delay the deliberation and timely passage of the proposed P5.024-trillion national budget for 2022.
Yap said that while he recognizes COA’s constitutional duty to audit government expenditures, it would be more prudent if the audit body will bring its adverse findings to the Office of the Ombudsman for appropriation action.
Back in the Senate, Sen. Risa Hontiveros asked: “How many more great things could we do with the (anti-insurgency) funds?”
The opposition senator said the proposed NTF-ELCAC budget should instead be reallocated to improve health facilities and special benefits for medical frontliners, job creation for displaced workers, support for MSMEs, or cash aid for those who permanently lost their jobs and livelihood during the pandemic.
Sen. Nancy Binay also slammed the plan to increase by P11 billion the budget for the anti-insurgency task force while slashing by P170 million the budget for the country’s primary infectious disease research and laboratory facility.
Amid elevated COVID variant outbreaks, Binay noted that the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine’s proposed budget next year for laboratory services was slashed from P393 million in 2021 to P223 million.
“What’s happening? Our enemy is COVID. Is ELCAC more important than RITM? It does not make sense. Government seems to be removed from the realities on the ground,” she said.
A party-list legislator who advocates teachers’ welfare also assailed the proposed national government 2022 budget for not giving education adequate support for the continuing blended distance learning amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The proposed budget, ACT-Teachers Rep. France Castro said, “will still not provide access to safe and quality education for all.”
“Teachers and students will remain undersupported with the Duterte administration’s proposed 2022 budget for the Department of Education,” she said.
“It does not provide adequate support for both teachers and students access to a safe and quality education. This means that the government would continue to fail to provide our youth their right to education.”
In the proposed 2022 budget of the DepEd, Castro noted that teachers would still only get a P5,000 cash allowance for one year, comprising the P3,500 teaching supplies allowance, P500 medical check-up allowance, and P1,000 Internet allowance.
“This remains a far cry from the demands of our teachers for P5,000 teaching supplies allowance and P1,500 monthly Internet allowance,” she added.
