‘Use idle funds to buy vaccines’

EN. Panfilo “Ping” Lacson proposed the realignment of vast congressional budget insertions to fund the government’s P20-billion pandemic response.

SLacson made the proposal after meeting last May 6 with Senate President Vicente Sotto 3rd and the three “czars” in the government’s fight against Covid-19.

Lacson said vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr., testing czar Vivencio Dizon and contact tracing czar Benjamin

Magalong told him P20 billion had to be raised to buy vaccines in 2021 and P90 billion in 2022.

He suggested P20 billion can be sourced from insertions marked “for later release” because implementing agencies concerned “were not consulted on insertions and thus could not implement.”

“Why not use the humongous congressional insertions tagged by the Department of Budget and Management as for later release to meet the P20-billion requirement for Covid vaccines this

year?” Lacson said in a radio interview on Saturday.

During his interpellation of the 2021 budget of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) last year, Lacson noted some “favored” districts got huge allocations in the General Appropriations Bill. The shares ranged from P7.559 billion to P15.351 billion.

Lacson said massive unused appropriations of several executive agencies including the Department of Education (DepEd), Department of Transportation (DoTr) and DPWH — which has a history of low utilization and poor disbursement — can be tapped as well.

He said under the Constitution, the President, the Chief Justice, the Senate President and House Speaker are all authorized to realign funds, so unused funds in the DepEd, DoTr and DPWH can easily be redirected to programs to fight pandemic, he said.

Lacson said he and Sotto suggested Galvez, Dizon and Magalong start talks with Budget Secretary Wendel Avisado to determine which appropriations in the 2021 budget can be shifted to the vaccination program.

“It is best they talk to Secretary Avisado so he can check which appropriations can be realigned for the vaccination program. That way, we need not include the amount in the Bayanihan 3 measure,” he said.

Lacson said they agreed P90 billion for next year’s vaccine procurement can be included in the regular budget of the Department of Health, instead of categorizing it as an unprogrammed fund. This way, its availability, especially under a cash-based budgeting system is assured.

Lacson said he and Sotto welcome more informal meetings with the three czars to discuss Covid response efforts.

“Later on, if other senators want to join, we can expand the meetings,” he said.