Senate President Vicente Sotto III opens the Senate Committee of the Whole hearing on the government鈥檚 COVID-19 vaccination program. (Screengrab from Senate Youtube livestream)
MANILA, Philippines 鈥� The Senate Committee of the Whole on Monday opened its inquiry on the government鈥檚 COVID-19 vaccination plan.
Senators will be asking officials about the details of the government鈥檚 plan with the P72.5-billion funding allocated for the COVID-19 vaccines under the 2021 national budget.
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The Senate鈥檚 hearing comes in light of several controversies surrounding the government鈥檚 inoculation plan.
In December, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III was accused of 鈥渄ropping the ball鈥� in the country鈥檚 deal with US drug maker Pfizer, which would have secured the delivery of 10 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccines to the Philippines this month.
Meanwhile, the PresidentialSecurity Group (PSG)聽 found itself in hot water after it was revealed that some members received a COVID-19 jab despite regulators not yet authorizing the use of a vaccine in the country.
Senate President Vicente Sotto III, who will be leading the inquiry as chair of the Committee of the Whole, earlier said he would not stop his fellow senators from raising the controversial vaccination of PSG personnel during the hearing.
The Senate building at the GSIS Complex in Pasay City. (Photo by LYN RILLON / Philippine Daily Inquirer)
Sotto, however, said no official connected to the said issue was invited to Monday鈥檚 hearing 鈥渂ecause it鈥檚 not [on] the agenda.鈥�
Cabinet officials who have confirmed attendance in the hearing are vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr., Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, Budget Secretary Wendel Avisado, and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Director General Rolando Domingo, according to a document provided by Sotto鈥檚 office over the weekend.
Other officials who confirmed their attendance were Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr., Interior Secretary Eduardo A帽o and Science and Technology Secretary Fortunato dela Pe帽a.
Galvez previously said the government hopes to vaccinate聽60 to 70 percent聽of Filipinos against the coronavirus 鈥� enough to trigger herd immunity鈥攚ithin three to five years.
The government is banking on the Sinovac vaccine from China to be the first to聽reach the Philippines聽with officials saying it may arrive in the first quarter of 2021.
The government is聽looking to secure聽up to 25 million doses of the Sinovac vaccine.
The country has so far formally secured 2.6 million doses of vaccine from British drugmaker聽AstraZeneca, which are expected to arrive in the second quarter of 2021.
The Philippines has so far logged聽 485,797 COVID-19 cases.聽 Over 449,000 have recovered while 9,398 have died.