Gov’t has money to fund massive inoculation drive, finance chief says
The government has enough money to fund an extensive vaccination drive in the country that will cover both the entire adult and young populations, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said on Monday.
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President Rodrigo Roa Duterte presides over a meeting with the Inter-Agency Task Force on the Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) core members prior to his talk to the people at the MalacaΓ±ang Golf (Malago) Clubhouse in MalacaΓ±ang Park, Manila on June 14, 2021. KING RODRIGUEZ/ PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO
During his presentation to President Rodrigo Roa Duterte, Dominguez said Congress has authorized the executive branch to spend P85 billion for vaccine purchases.
He
enumerated the fund sources: the Department of Health budget, P2.5 billion;
Bayanihan 2, P10 billion; and official development assistance (ODA) financing.
ODA
financing includes borrowings from the World Bank (WB), Asian Development Bank
(ADB), and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).
The
country has borrowed a total of P58.5 billion - P23.9 from World Bank; P20.3
billion from Asian Development Bank; and P14.3 billion from Asian Infrastructure
Investment Bank.
“Other
financing ho we are sourcing is up to 11 and a half billion and contingency
funds probably another two and a half. But the total so far is we have P85
billion,” Dominguez said.
With
P85 billion, the government can buy 140 million vaccine doses to inoculate 70
million Filipinos or the entire adult population.
In
the case of the younger population or those aged 12 to 17 years old, he said
they estimate it to cost another P20 billion, noting the government has enough
reserves to cover that amount of money.
“So
we have enough,” Dominguez said. “Tamang-tama, sapat po ‘yong pera natin para
sa vaccination. So we don’t have to worry.”
“The
money is there and we will certainly be able to vaccinate the entire adult
population plus the teenagers who are I think around 15 million, right? Around
15 million Filipinos. So total 85 million Filipinos.”
The
finance chief also responded to questions whether the government is borrowing
too much money as a response to the pandemic.
He
said that although the country’s debt has increased, it is just temporary, and
the government’s finances will normalize in the next few years once the economy
reopens.
Dominguez
praised the Duterte administration’s tax reform initiatives that have kept the
country’s credit rating “very, very strong,” with rating agencies retaining the
existing status.
More
than 100 countries around the world have been downgraded, according to the
finance chief.
“Ang
ibig sabihin niyan, pag na-downgrade kayo, mahihirapan kayong humiram o kung
hihiram man kayo, mas mataas ang interest. So ang interes natin actually is
quite low because our credit rating is very good,” Dominguez said.
“So
we think that the debt level of our country is high but it is sustainable and
we can manage to handle this debt in the coming years.” PND
