Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III reiterated Saturday night that the ongoing vaccine deliveries are expected to reach 171 million doses before the end of the year and these are more than enough to inoculate 70 million or 100 percent of the country’s adult population.

During President Duterte’s televised weekend meeting with select Cabinet officials, Dominguez also said that P45 billion is available under the national budget to sustain the government’s COVID-19 vaccination drive next year for protecting the people against more contagious and deadlier variants of the virus.

Dominguez said vaccine deliveries are projected to total 171 million COVID-19 vaccine doses before the yearend, and that, “The money is already available for that. So there is no problem with the money for this year.

“By the end of this year we will be able to vaccinate the entire adult population of the Philippines. Hopefully everybody will agree to be vaccinated,” Dominguez told the President.

He informed the President during the televised meeting that to date, the Philippines has already received 30 million vaccine doses of various brands.

Another 65 million are expected for delivery between July 1 and September 3o, and 55 million doses more by the year’s fourth quarter, he said.

The government is also expecting the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX) Facility to deliver additional volumes of vaccines this semester to complete the 171 million doses expected to be received by the country for 2021.

The International Finance Group (IFG) of the Department of Finance (DOF) said the Philippines can access a maximum of 49 million doses from COVAX.

Dominguez also assured the President that as a result of his administration’s policy of fiscal prudence since 2016, the government has funds for its COVID-19 response efforts even beyond 2022.

“Mr. President, I don’t think we’re good only until 6 months. I think we are good beyond 2022. So it’s not going to be easy but because of the moves that you have made from 2016 to 2019, we are ready to handle this problem financially. And that is due to you Mr. President,” Dominguez said.

Dominguez made the assurance about the availability of funding and the delivery of vaccines in response to the recommendation of medical experts during the late Saturday meeting for the government to accelerate the vaccination program to protect Filipinos from the more virulent Delta variant of COVID-19.

Additional funds are needed to inoculate children against the virus and to acquire booster shots should these become necessary, to which Dominguez said the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) has already given assurance that P45 billion is available under the national budget for these additional vaccine requirements.

“Just to assure yourself, Mr. President and the health community, we do have the money for that. Now the question is, how do we use that money? Are we going to need booster shots? Are we going to need another set of vaccinations?” Dominguez stressed.

“For next year, we already have P45 billion in the budget and already financed for whatever the DOH (Department of Health) is going to recommend, Mr. President,” he added.

As for the funds under the Bayanihan laws that were allegedly underspent as claimed by some lawmakers, Dominguez made it clear that the DBM under Secretary Wendel Avisado had already released a total of P665.72 billion to fund the government’s COVID-19 response and to mitigate the economic losses of low-income households, small businesses and other vulnerable sectors reeling from the pandemic-driven mobility restrictions.

The unspent portion is about P6 billion, which accounts for only one percent of the total COVID-19 response fund under the Bayanihan laws, Dominguez pointed out.

“The DBM and ourselves are going to each department to see where the P6 billion is. But Mr. President, this is a one-percent problem, it is not …. in relation to what we have released of P665 billion, this is 1 percent. And we are sure that it will be released, but in the meantime we are asking each department to really push the …. to really spend the money,” Dominguez said.

In response, the President said: “I’d like to tell Congress now that when Secretary Dominguez is talking to you, please listen.”

Dominguez has always pointed out that President Duterte’s policy of fiscal discipline and prudence and the tax and economic reforms he has put in place since 2016 allowed the government to get its act together and prepare financially when the COVID-19 pandemic struck last year.

He earlier warned that the pandemic would involve a protracted battle, which is why it is important to maintain fiscal responsibility.

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