Senator Pia S. Cayetano's manifestation (PART 2)
On the Bicameral Committee Report on the 2021 national budget

I simply will spread into the record some data I have, particularly on the questions and concerns our colleagues raised about the vaccine. So with the permission of the Chair and the Senate President, may I proceed?

I'd like to start out by saying that I do join our colleagues, I think the proper thing to do is to have a hearing and to really get the responses from the executives involved.

But just so that some of the questions that were asked at least on record, we can report the information that we found during the budget process. As his honor has correctly pointed out, the vaccines range in prices, anywhere from P610, that is the AstraZeneca brand, for the two doses, that is the cheapest and it goes all the way to... I think the most expensive, if I checked it correctly, is P4,500 for Moderna, if I checked that correctly... No actually, Sinopharm is the most expensive at P8,845 for the two doses.

So, let's just use the P610 one, which is the cheapest. Let me first point out that time and again, the IATF and also DOH told us that the objective really is to get from different brands. And really, the biggest issue is access. So inasmuch as WHO states that 60-70 percent of the population should be vaccinated for herd immunity, the question is how soon can we access vaccines to cover the 60-70 percent? And I think the best target that I heard, this may have changed, I agree with everyone that it is fluid. The closest we might be able to get is 25 percent. Again, let's check that but that is the number that I heard.

Now, I am sure our colleagues have also heard that there is already a... At the very least, there is a public-private partnership already to vaccinate 1 million Filipinos to be paid for by the private sector. They will donate 50 percent of that to the priority list of the government, which primarily be frontliners, and I believe followed by senior citizens. And the other half will be for the use of the private sector for their businesses.

Now, I'd like to point out, and this is really in response to our Senate President Pro Tempore's questions and concerns about the other expenses, as I already put on record, there is the injection and devices, included there also is the PPEs, because the vaccinators have to be in PPEs. and then I have mentioned the supply chain additional costs, which is a cost really that Zuellig stands by because they have been in charge of the supply chain of practically all the vaccines in our country. They distribute for the public government purchases and deliver it to RITM, and then they also distribute for all the private sector purchases. I believe that they know what they are doing and so the figure I gave, which is around P10 per vaccine for the regular storage of 2-8 degrees is really a figure that they've studied. And it only goes much higher, P55 per vaccine for the vaccine of Pfizer that requires -50 or -70 centigrades.

But, this supply chain figure is only one of the many expenses that we have to pay for. There is also the operational cost that DOH includes, and then there is also the health promotions. It's very important because as Sen. Gordon correctly pointed out, there is resistance to vaccines in our country. I won't go into the details but health promotion is so important and we need to ensure that DOH gets on it right away, to start talking about the importance of vaccination, not to be afraid of it, how important it is for the most vulnerable, primarily to get vaccinated, etc. So may budget din ang health promotion.

And then there has to be a budget also for waste disposal. Kasi hazardous yan. So there's also a budget for that. And finally, for surveillance. We have to include surveillance because we have to know what are the repercussions, side effects of the different classes of people who would be vaccinated - children, senior citizens, the sick, etc.

So, alam naman nila yan. That is something we also spread into the record. We've put that there and we know that these are expenses that DOH has to cover.

Now, in addition to that, the other thing I wanted to include in my report, or to spread into the record, is that as of 2019, around 68 percent of all our children have been vaccinated. I am pretty sure that went down in 2020 because of COVID, despite, prior to COVID, the efforts of DOH to vaccinate [children]. If you recall, we've had outbreaks of measles and polio. So they did an intensification of the vaccinations. So the question is, is that considered practice, a simulation of what to expect? Well yes and no. They did an intense vaccination program, but that's a far cry from vaccinating 25 percent, 60-70 percent of our population.

What Zuellig, as I mentioned, the distributor of our vaccines here in the country proposes is that we do a dry run for influenza or pneumococcal vaccine for the most vulnerable sectors as well. That could serve as a dry run. Because this is really a program of such a high magnitude.

And finally, I think this is my last point, let's also remember, as our colleagues discussed the importance of testing, the budget for testing, we took that into consideration in our recommendations because we knew that there are still areas where we need testing facilities. But we did not go all out on this knowing that there will also be a vaccine and third, knowing that medication is also important. Access to the medications that have now been undergoing trials is very important. Why? Because, our health experts tell us that you can have a contagious disease that is not fatal at all, that does not put people in ICUs, then it's almost like the common cough and colds. And you don't have to worry about it in the way we are worrying about it now because our health sector would be compromised, because our seniors and those vulnerable might die. It becomes very different if this current COVID mutates - and even if it doesn't mutate but as long as we have medications to treat those who get infected.

So these all go together, the budget for the vaccines, the budget for treatment, and the budget also for testing.

That's it, Mr. President and to my Chair, I just wanted that to be on record because in fairness to the DOH, they supplied us with this info. We discussed almost everything here. I think I've covered this during the deliberations, depending on who asks the questions. So I think it is important to spread that into the record as well. But I do support the need for us to conduct a hearing. I would also like to be updated because things change very quickly.

Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Mr. Chair and congratulations to you.