MARIKINA Rep. Stella Quimbo questioned the government’s move to classify P45 billion for the procurement of Covid-19 vaccine booster shots under Unprogrammed Appropriations in the proposed 2022 national budget. This means, she said, the funding for such purpose may get affected if the government earns less than expected revenues if another lockdown is imposed next year.
At Thursday’s House budget hearing on the proposed 2022 national budget, Quimbo stressed the importance of assured funding for booster shots, noting that she has been hearing a lot of cases of fully vaccinated people getting infected with Covid-19.
“The booster shot means the third shot. We heard of many cases among those that have already been fully vaccinated, since most of the vaccines we used is Sinovac with an efficacy rate below 60 percent. Anyway, it protects us from severe cases but it is still important to get booster shots,” Quimbo said, partly in Filipino.
There are a total of P151-billion Unprogrammed Appropriations under the proposed 2022 budget, including the P45 billion eyed for buying the booster shots.
Unlike programmed appropriations which already have definite funding as of the time the budget is prepared, unprogrammed appropriations require that revenue collection exceed targets, and when additional grants or foreign funds are generated.
Responding to Quimbo, Department of Budget and Management (DBM) Officer-In-Charge Tina Canda said they placed the item under Unprogrammed Appropriations because there is no assurance yet that Covid-19 booster shots will be required.
But Canda agreed with Quimbo that placing this item under Unprogrammed Appropriations may mean that this can be affected if the government earns fewer revenues, especially if another round of lockdown is imposed.
Despite this, Canda assured lawmakers there are enough funds in the DOH budget to buy the required number of Covid-19 vaccines.
Dominguez: Funds available
Although the government placed the item under Unprogrammed Appropriations, Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III told reporters that the funding for this is “already available.”
“The President’s budget includes this item as a contingency. This will be implemented only if the Health authorities determine if boosters are required,” Dominguez said.
House Senior Deputy Minority Leader and Iloilo Rep. Janette Garin, who tested positive for Covid-19 last week despite being vaccinated, appealed that the P45 billion to buy booster shots be placed instead under Programmed Appropriations.
Garin, a former health secretary, also questioned the Executive branch’s “impractical” proposal under the 2022 national budget to allocate P5.1 billion for the procurement of a specific brand of Covid-19 testing kit called GeneXpert cartridge, which she said is “more expensive” and can cater to fewer people compared to other testing kits in the market.
According to Garin, the GeneXpert cartridge can only test 1 to 4 people while the other machines that the country has can test 1 to 96 people.
“With the volume of infections we are having now, I find it impractical to make a line item budget of P5.1 billion very specific to a brand of a testing kit…. Why not use testing kits that are cheaper and can test more people because the amount of P5.1 billion can transcend to maybe 10 million Filipinos but if we use GeneXpert cartridges, I believe that amount can cater to roughly only 3 million Filipinos or even less,” Garin said.
Canda, who is also currently infected with Covid-19, explained that the proposed allocation of P5.1 billion for GeneXpert cartridges was part of DOH’s request when they submitted their proposal to DBM back in April.
“So we really professed no expertise in the choice of testing kits so as I mentioned earlier we defer to the wisdom of Congress in the selection or the choice of testing kits if it’s more economical to use other testing kits. We don’t have any preferred brand at the moment,” Canda said.