FINANCE Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III debunked Senator Panfilo Lacson’s claim that government loans for procurement of Covid-19 vaccines have already reached P126.75 billion.
The Department of Finance (DOF) clarified on Sunday that government’s budget for the vaccines remains at P82.5 billion, of which P70 billion will come from unprogrammed funds to be unlocked by collecting additional revenues or by securing additional financing from the Philippines’s multilateral partner-institutions.
To date, the DOF said the government has secured loans amounting to US$1.2 billion (around P58.5 billion) for the country’s procurement of Covid-19 vaccines, particularly from World Bank, Asian Development Bank and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. Dominguez also sent a letter to Lacson, saying that these loans for vaccine procurement “are being processed for signing this March 2021 with an indicative aggregate loan amount of US$1.2 billion.”
These loans include: US$500 million for the Philippines’s Covid-19 Emergency Response Project—Additional Financing (PCERP-AF) from the World Bank; US$400-million Second Health System Enhancement to Address and Limit Covid-19 (HEAL 2) under the Asia Pacific Vaccine Facility of the Asian Development Bank; and US$300 million HEAL 2 loan from the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).
Copies of the letter were also sent to Senate President Vicente Sotto III, Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto, Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri, Minority Leader Franklin Drilon and the other senators.
Dominguez made the clarification following reports that have circulated saying that the government’s accumulated loans, along with the Department of Health (DOH) appropriations under the Bayanihan 2 law (Republic Act (RA) No. 11494) to procure Covid-19 vaccines, allegedly now amount to “P126.75 billion.”
In a tweet on Thursday, Lacson asked “NASAAN KA BAKUNA? (WHERE ARE YOU, VACCINE?)” as he tallied that the loans “approved” by World Bank, Asian Development Bank and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank already reached P126.75 billion, including the P10 billion allocated for the purchase of vaccines under the Bayanihan to Recover as One Act.
Dominguez noted that “some of the amounts in the report are not for Covid-19 vaccine procurement.”
Only US$700 million of the loans listed in the report were for vaccine procurement, the finance chief said. Dominguez said these are the US$400-million loan from the ADB and the US$300-million loan from the AIIB for HEAL 2, which the two multilateral institutions are cofinancing.
He added US$1.7 billion of the total of US$2.4 billion loans listed in the circulated report were intended for the purchase of Covid-19 medical and laboratory equipment, reagents, personal protective equipment (PPEs), ambulances and other essentials for medical frontliners, while the other loan packages mentioned were for general budgetary support to cover state spending on pandemic response measures.
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