Loans for Covid-19 vaccines still with multilateral lenders

MANILA – President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday reiterated that the approved loans made by the Philippines to purchase Covid-19 vaccines are still with multilateral lenders.

This, after Senators Panfilo “Ping” Lacson and Risa Hontiveros questioned where the funds for the Covid-19 vaccines are.

Duterte defended the government’s financing scheme for vaccines, noting that they had to borrow funds from multilateral lenders — World Bank, Asian Development Bank, and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) — to be able pay for vaccines.

He explained that the government has not used “a single centavo” from the borrowed funds because they have yet to receive doses of the Covid-19 vaccines they purchased.

“Ang buong akala kasi nila yung pera na bilyon bilyon na ibinigay nila nandiyan na kamay natin (They must have thought that the billions they gave us are in our hands), that is cold cash. Sinasabi na natin (We keep saying) time and again that the money is with the lending bank still so we have not used any single centavo because as a matter of fact about the vaccines that we are going to buy pero donated ito lahat sa ngayon (but what we have now is all donated),” he said.

For its initial vaccination rollout that started on March 1, the government is using 600,000 doses donated vaccines from Chinese drugmaker Sinovac and 525,600 from COVAX facility, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) global vaccine sharing scheme.

Duterte said the Sinovac-made CoronaVac Covid-19 vaccines that will be arriving this week are the ones purchased by the government and that it would be the time that the bank will pay the vaccine manufacturer.

“It’s the bank who will pay upon our advice na nadeliver na yung bakuna. Hindi tayo ang magpunta, sila through paperwork (that the vaccines have been delivered. We won’t pay for them, it’s them paying through paperwork),” he added.

He, meanwhile, allayed concerns that the government’s financing scheme for Covid-19 vaccines is tainted with corruption.

“If you are afraid of corruption let your mind go easy because these things are not susceptible to anything. The money is in the hands of the bank and they collect, yung nagpabili sa’tin ng bakuna (the vaccine manufacturers collect), from the bank. Hindi sa atin na pumunta ‘yan kay [Finance Secretary] Sonny Dominguez na bubuksan niya yung drawer tapos sasabihin niya ‘Eto na yung pambayad.’ Hindi ho (It doesn’t pass through us or Sonny Dominguez where he can just open his drawer and say ‘Here’s the payment.’ It’s not like that),” he said.

Dominguez, for his part, explained that vaccine financing only amounts to PHP82.5 billion, not trillions of pesos.

He added that borrowing funds from multilateral lenders is a form of taking advantage of lower interest rates.