Drilon: Proposed P10-B budget for COVID-19 vaccine under unprogrammed funds in 2021 an ‘illusion’

The P10-billion budget for COVID-19 vaccines lodged under the unprogrammed funds in the general appropriations bill is an illusion as gaining additional government revenues in 2021 is not a certainty, Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon said Wednesday.

During the period of debates, Drilon acknowledged that a total of P18 billion has been earmarked for COVID-19 immunization but more than half of which are hanging in the balance.

"The budget for COVID 19 vaccines is only P8 billion. True, under the Committee Report, an additional P10 billion in unprogrammed funds is set aside for the purchase of the vaccine. But remember: allocations under the unprogrammed fund item cannot be tapped, unless the total revenues exceed the targets," he said.

"No economist will stake his or her reputation by asserting that we expect to exceed our revenue targets," he added. "Given this, it is clear that the additional P10 billion for COVID vaccine under the item on Unprogrammed Funds is, with all due respect, more apparent than real, an illusion."

Drilon emphasized that, in contrast, P19 billion has been allocated for anti-insurgency efforts and P16.4 billion of which is at the disposal of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC).

"The President announced that we will borrow about P14.5 billion pesos to purchase COVID-19 vaccines, but we appropriate P19 billion in our regular budget as anti-insurgency funds, and over P9 billion pesos for intelligence and confidential programs," he said.

"Can we not use the 19 billion pesos anti-insurgency funds, especially that it is for the 822 cleared barangays, to purchase the vaccines? We ask: are our priorities correct?" he added.

He urged his colleagues to set the right priorities and policy thrusts as they refine the proposed P4.5 trillion national budget for 2021.

Senate Finance Committee chairperson Sonny Angara, on the other hand, said the NTF-ELCAC barangay development fund is not actually a security sector budget. He added that it will be released directly to more than 800 insurgency-cleared barangays, mostly in Mindanao, Western Visayas, and the Bicol Region. — RSJ, GMA News