MANILA, Philippines — A measure has been filed in the House of Representatives to allow private companies to procure coronavirus vaccines for employees and their families.
Deputy Speaker Rufus Rodriguez filed House Resolution 1453 which seeks to allow the inoculation of vaccines to more Filipinos as the funds provided for government’s vaccination program would not suffice to cover over 104 million Filipinos.?
The Cagayan de Oro congressman explained that the P72.5-billion fund allocated in the 2021 national budget for vaccines would cover only 30 to 50 percent of the country’s population, which is far from the 70 to 80 percent herd immunity level the Department of Health wants to achieve.?
Invoking the “right to health” of Filipinos under the 1987 Constitution, he said the private sector must be allowed to procure vaccines to help the government “attain the goal of herd immunity.”?
“Many private companies have expressed interest in acquiring and purchasing vaccines for their employees and their dependents to move towards higher productivity and income for their personnel,” Rodriguez said.?
He pointed out that from the onset of the pandemic, businesses have been a partner of the national government in addressing the social and economic fallout of the health crisis.
If allowed, these companies would have to import vaccines approved by the Food and Drug Administration and abide by relevant rules and regulations.
“A proper vaccination program for the private sector will significantly aid the government in its pursuit to fight COVID-19 and its effects, and in regaining some semblance of normalcy with businesses bouncing back and ultimately placing the economy on its way to recovery,” he added.
In pursuing this measure, Rodriguez also filed a companion measure, House Bill 8301, that would exempt vaccines to be purchased by the private sector for their workers and dependents from import duties, value added tax, excise tax and other fees.?
Several business and industry leaders had earlier committed to purchase 2.6 million doses of vaccines from AstraZeneca, half of which will be for their workers and the other half will be donated to the government.
Scores of local government units have also negotiated with vaccine makers for their own supply.
Meanwhile, presidential spokesman Harry Roque Jr. downplayed yesterday criticisms that the Philippines is lagging in terms of COVID vaccine acquisition and rollout.
“Based on World Health Organization, and I quote, ‘The Philippines is on track in terms of its preparation for the vaccine introduction and for the vaccine roll out’,” Roque said.
He added that vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. has reported that the Philippines, along with Colombia, are among the first batch of countries that will take part in the WHO Solidarity Trial where 15,000 Filipinos are expected to participate to determine the efficacy of the vaccines.
Rowena Cristina Guevara, Department of Science and Technology (DOST) undersecretary for research and development, explained that the country was initially set to enroll 4,000 participants in the trial but the WHO had requested to expand this to 15,000.
For the 4,000 participants, the DOST had an approved budget of P89.1 million. The agency had requested an additional budget of P384.4 million for the 15,000 participants and this was approved by President Duterte.
Socorro Escalante, coordinator for essential medicines and health technologies of the WHO Western Pacific, said the Philippines remains on track for its planned rollout of COVID-19 vaccines this year.
The factors used by the WHO to determine a country’s readiness to carry out a vaccination program include the existence of a national vaccine deployment plan, regulatory preparedness, availability of cold chain infrastructure and vaccine safety surveillance.?
“We see that the country is on track of setting up the systems. And we will continue to work with the government to monitor and to understand what is the capacity and what we could advice technically in the vaccines rollout,” Escalante said.
Roque said the government is already in the advanced stages of negotiations with Novavax, AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Sinovac and Gamaleya. – Sheila Crisostomo