2022 budget for Covid-19 response includes booster shot funds

MANILA – The Duterte administration is allocating a PHP240.7 billion budget for the country’s Covid-19 pandemic response, including a PHP45.3 billion fund for the procurement of Covid-19 vaccine booster shots.

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said the PHP240.7 billion funding requirement for Covid-19 response efforts is stipulated in the PHP5.024 trillion proposed 2022 National Expenditure Plan (NEP).

“Emphasize ko po, ito’y preliminary. Ito po yung nakasaad sa National Expenditure Plan pero ito po’y puwedeng baguhin po siyempre ng Kongreso. Puwede dagdagan, puwede bawasan (I just want to emphasize that this is preliminary. This is stipulated in the National Expenditure Plan but this can be changed by Congress. They can add, they can remove),” Roque said in a Palace press briefing.

Under the PHP240.7 billion Covid-response fund, he said PHP93.7 billion will be allocated to the Department of Health (DOH) for the Health Facilities Enhancement Program, Prevention and Control of Communicable Diseases, Assistance to Indigent Patients, Procurement and Supply Chain Management Service, among others.

The DOH allocation will also include PHP45.3 billion for the procurement of Covid-19 vaccine booster shots, he said.

Amid concerns that antibodies in some Covid-19 vaccines fade after six months since the country kicked off its vaccination drive in March, Roque assured that the government could procure Covid-19 vaccine booster shots earlier since they are already funded by multilateral lending agencies.

“Titignan po natin dahil ito naman pong procurement natin sisipa po ‘yan as early as January but puwede naman natin bilhan na ‘yan earlier if we need to dahil bagamat nasa national budget po ‘yan, that’s funded po from the multilateral lending agencies (We will see because this procurement will start to arrive as early as January but we can purchase them earlier if we need to because even if it’s part of the national budget, that’s already funded from the multilateral lending agencies),” he said.

Roque, meanwhile, said the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) will receive a budget of PHP33.6 billion which will go to livelihood and emergency employment including funding for the agency’s Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers (TUPAD).

The Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) will have an allocation of PHP11.2 billion for welfare services including its emergency repatriation program and reintegration services for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), he said.

Roque said PHP11.5 billion will go to the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) for its promotive social welfare programs.

The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) will get PHP1.2 billion for the establishment of the Virology Science and Technology Institute of the Philippines (VIP) Research and Development Support to National Covid-19 initiatives, he added.

A total of PHP1.2 billion will be allocated to the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) for its Livelihood Seeding Program-Negosyo sa Barangay (LSP-NSB).

The state-funded University of the Philippines (UP) will get PHP140 million for its Philippine Genomic Information Resource Hub, Phase 2, UP system.

Finally, PHP99 billion will go to the Department of Education (DepEd) for its flexible learning options, textbooks, and other instruction materials, general management, and supervision among others.