A congressman on Thursday has urged the Department of Health (DOH) to allocate a budget for the purchase of a vaccine against COVID-19 under its proposed budget for 2021.

Cagayan de Oro City Representative Rufus Rodriguez made the remark after Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano said the House is ready to appropriate funds to procure a COVID-19 vaccine in the proposed P4.3-trillion national budget for next year.

“I am suggesting that the DOH already incorporate in its budget proposal its estimated funding requirement for the doses the country needs to protect our people from coronavirus,” Rodriguez said during a session.

Rodriguez said they have to rely  on DOH and not Congress nor any other agency that could estimate the cost of previous vaccines and how they could be accessed from manufacturers.

“We will have to rely on them especially considering that the COVID-19 vaccine is yet to be found, though several countries and pharmaceutical companies are racing to develop it,” Rodriguez said.

While government agencies are already preparing their budget proposals for next year, Rodriguez said there is still time for the DOH to make adjustments and accommodate funding for COVID-19 vaccine.

He said the administration has a constitutional deadline of one month from July 27 — the opening of the Second Regular Session of the 18th Congress — to submit budget proposals to lawmakers.

“If the DOH needs more time after the budget proposal is submitted, they should tell us. We can wait for their estimates and we can introduce the needed adjustments while the House is considering the spending measure,” Rodriguez said.

Earlier, BHW party-list Representative Natasha Co proposed to include a budget for a COVID-19 national vaccination plan in the 2021 national budget.

“This early, the national government must make the strategic decision of crafting a National Vaccination Plan. This plan must avoid everything that went wrong with dengue vaccination and other vaccination efforts that backfired because of wrong implementation on the ground, out in the field,” Co said.

“The vaccine for COVID-19 must be included in the basic mandatory vaccination programs. The budget for the COVID-19 national vaccination plan must be part of the 2021 national budget,” she added./Stacy Ang