The Philippine government is in talks with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and World Bank (WB) to take out at least $800 million (about PHP39 billion / AED2,938,520,000) in loans for its COVID-19 vaccination program.

This was revealed by Finance Undersecretary Mark Dennis Joven during a recent hearing conducted by the Senate committee of the whole.

It’s the DOF, according to Joven, that has begun negotiations with the multilateral institutions to secure the project loans.

Joven added that once they will secure it, this would carry low interest rates, with an average maturity period of at least 10 years.

Joven is the head of the task group that takes charge of the procurement and financing of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Their group is composed of the DIF and the Departments of Health (DOH) and of Budget and Management (DBM). They report directly to the National Task Force Against COVID-19 chief implementer Carlito Galvez Jr.

In a press statement released by DOF, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said the DOF has “in place” PHP75 billion of the PHP82.5 billion budget required to provide vaccines to around 55 percent of the population.

Of the PHP82.5 billion, the amount of PHP2.5 billion forms part of the budget of the DOH under the 2021 General Appropriations Act (GAA), while P10 billion will come from the funds allocated for the COVID-19 vaccination program under Republic Act (RA) No. 11494 or the Bayanihan To Recover As One Act (Bayanihan 2).

The remaining PHP70 billion will be sourced from loans provided by multilateral lenders, the Philippines’ bilateral partners and/or the domestic market, he added.

The DOF is processing around PHP62.5 billion (approximately US$1.3 billion) through loans with multilateral banks to procure COVID-19 vaccines for adult Filipinos, Dominguez said.

These multilateral institutions include the ADB, WB and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).

According to Dominguez, the government is targeting to inoculate between 50 to 70 million adult Filipinos aged 18 years old and above.

“We have 110 million Filipinos. Of the 110 million, around 40 million are below the ages of 18 and it is not recommended that teenagers and below get the vaccine. So, you knock off 40 million out of 110 million. That leaves you 70 million Filipinos potentially to vaccinate,” he said during the open forum following his speech at the 72nd inaugural meeting of the Management Association of the Philippines (MAP) held online on Tuesday.

The COVID-19 vaccines authorized for use so far are only allowed for adults aged 18 years old and above, as there are no clinical trials yet involving children.

Dominguez said initial computations place the conservative cost per person to be vaccinated at P1,300, which already includes the required doses, syringe, storage, equipment, information campaign, monitoring and other support services.

At PHP1,300 per person, the government would be able to inoculate roughly 57 to 60 million Filipinos out of the 70 million that need to be vaccinated, Dominguez said.

“Now, that leaves you 13 million people. We expect the 13 million to be covered by the LGUs (local government units), the private sector, and of course, there are the recusants—the guys who don’t believe in vaccination,” he said during the virtual open forum.

“So, basically, we are going to be covered and I think we will be able easily now, with the resources that we have raised, to vaccinate 60 million Filipinos,” he said. (ES)