Filipinos who can afford can already avail of COVID-19 vaccine, says Palace.
Despite that the Universal Health Care (UHC) Law stated that every Filipino must be vaccinated, Malacañang said that those Filipinos who can afford can already avail of the COVID-19 vaccine.
This, as Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque made the statement after President Rodrigo Duterte said that the government “does not care” about those who could afford the COVID-19 vaccine.
In a presser aired through PTV-4, Roque said that the government won’t stop those who wanted to buy COVID-19 vaccines by themselves once it’s available.
Roque also noted that there will probably be private companies that would distribute them locally.
“Siguro nga pag lumabas na yung bakuna, meron pong mga private companies na magpapasok diyan at meron naman tayong mga Pilipinong can afford”, Roque said.
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Roque then explained that it’s the government’s strategy to give the COVID-19 vaccine to recipients of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), frontliners, and the military and the police for free.
However, Roque said that the Universal Health Care Law stated that every Filipino must be vaccinated.
President Rodrigo Duterte had recently named COVID-19 National Task Force Chief Implementer Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. as the vaccine czar who would oversee all efforts regarding the production, acquisition, and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines.
The Inter-agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-MEID) had likewise approved the National COVID-19 Vaccine Roadmap and formed a new cluster in order to impose the immunization program.
It was last month when President Duterte assured the public that he had already found the money to buy COVID-19 vaccines.
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