5 more LGUS set aside funds to purchase COVID-19 vaccines
At least two provinces and three cities have set aside substantial amounts to be able to purchase coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccines for their respective constituents.
Quezon Governor Danilo Suarez expressed his preference for a P1-billion fund for the province to purchase the vaccines.
“Landbank will be the source of our funds because we have un-availed loan funds sa kanila na hindi pa namin nagagamit, I will prefer to go up to P1billion”, Suarez said.
“The health of the province has no tag price and it is non-negotiable,” he emphasized.
In Bacolod City, the city government entered in a multi-lateral agreement and confidentiality agreement with AstraZeneca on Thursday at the Bacolod City Government Center to ensure that its constituents will be allocated vaccines.
The Iloilo provincial government also announced that it was allocating at least P95 million to purchase COVID-19 vaccines once these are legally made available in the country.
Gov. Arthur Defensor Jr. said the Iloilo provincial government was on the first step of procuring the vaccines in coordination with the national government.
This was after the Iloilo Provincial Board approved Thursday, January 7, the request for Defensor to enter into a multilateral agreement with British pharmaceutical firm AztraZeneca and the national government to procure the COVID-19 vaccines.
Mayor Evelio Leonardia also said, at a press briefing, that P300 million were being allocated to purchase the vaccines.
AstraZeneca is a multinational pharmaceutical company based in Cambridge, England, which has partnered with the University of Oxford in developing a vaccine against COVID19.
“It is our policy, our belief, and our commitment that when the health and lives of our people are at stake, we will go for broke,” Leonardia said.
The mayor stressed that the city government was committed to providing its citizens with any duly approved vaccines that would be available in the market.
This was the reason why city officials are making all necessary efforts to raise the needed budget, according to Leonardia.
In Puerto Princesa City, Palawan, city government will be setting aside P500 million for the purchase of the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA)approved vaccines.
According to Mayor Lucilo Bayron they were targeting to vaccinate around 70 percent of the population, or around 200,000 individuals, in Puerto Princesa for free.
He said a portion of this year’s budget will be re-aligned for the immunization plan dubbed as CoVacc.
“Our target is 70 percent of the population. Kung ano ‘yong mabibili natin, bilhin na natin para ‘yong vaccination program natin masimulan na natin Whatever we buy, let’s buy so that the vaccination program could start),” Mayor Bayron said.
Bayron also emphasized that the city will not be buying the Pfizer vaccine as the city government did not have the capability or facilities to provide storage which is a requirement of the vaccine.
“Let’s forget about Pfizer. It needs to be stored in minus 70 to minus 90 degrees Celsius, we don’t have the capability,” Bayron said. Legazpi City Mayor Noel Rosal also announced on Thursday that the city was preparing a P200-million budget to buy the vaccines.
Rosal said that he has met the with local finance committee, and the fund was already being prepared.
“Just met our local finance committee. Inihahanda na natin mga kapatid ang ₱200 million para makapila na tayo sa pag-order ng vaccine para sa COVID19 (Our brothers are now preparing the P200 million so that we can file our order for the vaccine),” he said.