Philippines seeks $500 million loan for boosters

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines is seeking $500 million (about P25 billion) in fresh loans from two multilateral banks for the procurement of additional COVID-19 vaccines.

This new funding will be sourced from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).

Based on the project document released by AIIB, a total of $553.66 million is needed to finance the Second Health System Enhancement to Address and Limit COVID-19 under the Asia Pacific Vaccine Access Facility Project (HEAL 2).

Of the total project cost, $250 million (about P12.5 billion) each will be funded by ADB and AIIB while the remaining $53.66 million (P2.68 billion) will be shouldered by the government.

Financing approval is expected this fourth quarter while the estimated date of loan closing is September 2024.

Last month, the Department of Finance started preparing funding arrangements for the procurement of additional COVID-19 vaccine supply.

The fresh $500 million in loans form part of the $900 million (roughly P45.5 billion) which Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said is being secured for booster shots.

The General Appropriations Bill (GAB) for next year allocates P45 billion for purchase of booster shots placed in the unprogrammed fund and another P16.2 billion in the programmed fund supposedly to inoculate 113 million Filipinos next year.

The projects under unprogrammed funds will not be implemented until there is an approved loan or once the government exceeds its non-tax revenue targets.

Meanwhile, about 10- to 15-million vaccine doses should be administered on the National Vaccination Days from Nov. 29 to Dec. 1, National Task Force against COVID-19 (NTF) chief implementer Carlito Galvez Jr. said yesterday.

“We cannot slow down our vaccination. We are pushing you to vaccinate because we are racing against time,” Galvez said in his appeal to local government units (LGUs) to heed President Duterte’s directive to scale up vaccination throughout the country.

“We are fighting an unseen enemy and there is some sort of cycle that after two months the cases will rise again,” warned the vaccine czar.

Dr. Rabindra Abeyasinghe, World Health Organization (WHO) country representative, also urged LGUs to ramp up their vaccination program.

“We are committed again in ensuring the fast rollout of vaccines to every LGU... and we urge the LGUs to roll out the vaccines as efficiently as possible so that more Filipinos are fully protected,” Abeyasinghe said.

‘No vaccination, no 4Ps aid’ hit

In a related development, the government’s plan to impose a “no vaccination, no 4Ps aid” policy met new opposition in Sen. Leila de Lima, who called it “reprehensible and unacceptable.”

The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) proposed that the regular government dole-outs to the poor – known as the 4Ps or Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program – be released only to those vaccinated against COVID-19.

De Lima, principal author of Republic Act 11310 that institutionalized the 4Ps, said funds allocated for 4Ps should not be used as a bargaining chip to force aid beneficiaries to get themselves vaccinated.

Last Nov. 6, DILG Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya admitted that they were looking into excluding 4Ps beneficiaries from receiving subsidies under the antipoverty program if they would not get vaccinated against COVID-19.

Presidential spokesman Harry Roque echoed this sentiment and suggested that the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) take a look at the DILG’s proposal while Congress should introduce an amendment to RA 11310 to include such conditionality.

De Lima said officials and politicians should stop tinkering with the landmark law and instead focus their efforts on more efficient information campaigns to address vaccine hesitancy among Filipinos.

“The no-vaccine, no-subsidy that this government is pushing is against the law and inhumane. They cannot just add a conditionality that is not found in the law,” said the senator, who chairs the Senate committee on social justice, welfare and rural development.

German donation

Meanwhile, Galvez expressed gratitude to Germany, the European Union, the COVAX Facility and other international partners for the 793,900 AstraZeneca vaccine doses that arrived in the country last Tuesday.

The AstraZeneca shipment was the second batch of vaccines which completes the 1.6 million doses donated by the German government to the Philippines through the COVAX Facility.

“Germany is very proud to be able to contribute to this effort of the Philippines to vaccinate the country in order to make everyone safe,” German Ambassador Anke Reiffenstuel said.

EU Delegation to the Philippines chief Luc Véron, UNICEF Deputy Representative Behzad Noubary, Foreign Affairs Assistant Secretary Jaime Ledda and AstraZeneca head of government affairs Victor Sepulveda also witnessed the arrival of the AstraZeneca vaccine shipment.

3 M Sinovac doses arrive

Yesterday, three million doses of the China-made VeroCell Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 2 via Philippine Airlines flight from Beijing.

The shipment arrived at 11:04 a.m. and was met at the airport by Health Undersecretary Maria Carolina Vidal Taino and Assistant Secretary Wilben Mayor of the NTF and the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP).

The NTF said the jabs were procured by the government through ADB.

Meanwhile, another 866,970 doses of the US-made Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines were set to arrive at the NAIA Terminal 3 late last night.

To date, 114,245,400 doses of procured and donated COVID-19 vaccine doses have been delivered to the Philippines.

The government, which is targeting to inoculate up to 77 million individuals for the country to achieve herd immunity against COVID-19, has so far fully vaccinated 30.1 million people, while over 35.6 million others have received their first dose of the vaccine.

Jabs for airport frontliners

Meanwhile, the Bureau of Customs at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport and the Manila International Airport Authority held their fourth vaccination program for airport frontliners.

The program aims to protect more than 1,400 frontliners against COVID-19.

Building attendants, security guards and some personnel from other government agencies operating at the airport who missed the inoculation last June were also included in the vaccination program. – Jose Rodel Clapano, Cecille Suerte Felipe, Paolo Romero, Rudy Santos