THE RACE is officially on. Local government units in Metro Manila and other parts of the country are rolling out their COVID-19 vaccine plans. These LGUs are self-reliantly doing their best to get their constituents immunized against the disease and have started pre-registration or procurement programs for their citizens to get inoculated for free.
Angeles City Mayor Carmelo ‘Pogi’ Lazatin together with Chief Tactician and Adviser IC Calaguas and Executive Assistant IV Reina Manuel tossed P25M for COVID-19 vaccines and seeks P50-M augmentation fund from the Department of Health (DOH) in their efforts to prioritize frontline medical workers, constituents belonging to the marginalized sectors and if possible stretch out the provision of COVID-19 vaccines to the entire local population. This year’s executive budget, which includes the coronavirus vaccination program, is confined to a total of P2 billion for education, health, and social service programs, development projects, disaster risk reduction and management, drug abuse prevention, control, rehabilitation and treatment of drug dependents, the costs of providing basic services and facilities particularly those devolved by the Department of Health, Department of Social Welfare and Development, Department of Agriculture, and Department of Environment and Natural Resources, personnel services, maintenance and other operating expenses, capital outlay, debt servicing, and for other obligated programs, projects and activities (PPAs) of the city.
The DOH noted that there are limits to getting the coveted vaccine. Only the national government can procure a vaccine that has been issued emergency use authorization (EUA) by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). LGUs can only procure a vaccine on their own once it is given a certificate of product registration (CPR) for regular marketing and distribution. In the case of COVID-19 vaccines which are still technically in the development phase, regulatory authorities are only issuing EUAs, so far.
Hence, LGUs are encouraged to work with the DOH in order to pool the funds and then the national government can procure and launch a smoother and collective immunization campaign that would tame the pandemic. Under the 2021 national budget, P72.5 billion was allocated for the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines. The national government targets to vaccinate only 70% of the Filipino population in the next three to five years. There is currently 43.6 million members of the labor force, constituting approximately 40% of the national population; The IATF said that the first priority in the vaccination would be the frontline health workers which account for 1.6% of the population or 1.76 million Filipinos, 2nd priority are the indigent senior citizens (3.78 million or 3.5% of the population), 3rd priority are the remaining senior citizens (5.67 million or 5.3% of the population), 4th priority are the remaining indigent population (12.9 million or 12% of the population), and 5th priority are the uniformed personnel (525,523 or .5% of the population).
