Tuguegarao City, Cagayan – Government officials have expressed their concern over the possibility of 27 million government and privately procured COVID-19 vaccines set to expire in July this year.
Senate minority leader Frank Drilon and Presidential adviser for entrepreneurship Joey Concepcion said there may be a huge waste of the government’s funds amounting to over P13 billion if the hefty number of COVID-19 doses will not be administered.
Concepcion told the media on Monday that he told the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) to mandate booster cards prior to entering establishments nationwide by June-July 2022 to push more Filipinos to get fully vaccinated as well as their booster shots.
The Presidential adviser said in a statement, “What was very important is that we should not waste them. These 27 million vaccines, that’s about my estimate that ten dollars each, that’s 270-million dollars.”
Meanwhile, Senator Drilon took aim at the Department of Health and the IATF for “callous disregard” for taxpayers’ money, citing that the money to be wasted should have been allocated for ‘ayuda’ during the fuel crisis.
Drilon also told the media earlier on Sunday, “More than two years into the pandemic, the IATF still manages to mismanage the government’s response to the pandemic. It is criminal neglect if they let that happen.” TNF