The Philippine Budget Department’s request for extra financial support to procure COVID-19 vaccines was questioned by a senator on June 10.
The government had still not explained about the disbursement of the P82.5 billion allocated earlier for vaccine purchase, Sen. Francis Pangilinan told ANC’s Headstart while questioning the need for allocating an additional P25 billion to purchase COVID-19 vaccines.
Meanwhile, Senate President Vicente Sotto III had urged for holding a ’Committee of the Whole’ hearing on the country’s COVID-19 response, Pangilinan said, adding that these were major issues that needed to be dealt with by the Senate during the recess.
Noting that the Senate President had expressed his willingness in this regard, Pangilinan also called for an intensified information dissemination campaign on COVID-19 vaccines, while citing cited health department data about 113,000 Filipinos not yet getting their second dose.
While December 2020’s vaccine hesitancy was 47 percent, the present figures showed 70 percent.
He said a lack of information dissemination campaign could be one of the reasons why 113,000 people did not go for second dose.
