Covid-19 vaccines in the Philippines is free of charge, Malacañang said on Tuesday.
Palace spokesman Harry Roque made the statement after what he described as a “misinterpreted” statement of Philippine Red Cross chief Sen. Richard Gordon.
“Lilinawin ko lang po sa panig po ng presidente, ang pangako po niya ibigay ang mga bakuna ng libre, dahil ang mga bakuna naman na inaangkat ng gobyerno ay babayaran ng ating gobyerno,” Roque said.
“Iyong mga inaangkat siyempre ng pribadong sector ay para sa kanilang gamit, pero wala po dapat magbenta, kasi wala nga pong general use authority pa ang kahit anong bakuna,” he added.
Currently, the government is deploying Covid-19 vaccines through emergency use permits issued by the Food and Drug Administration.
The Covid-19 vaccines approved for emergency use in the Philippines are Moderna, Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Sinovac, Covaxin, Sputnik V and Janssen.
With less than eight million doses so far, vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. said the Philippines could only achieve herd immunity by yearend once it was able to inoculate 500,000 individuals per day and deploy 15 million vaccine doses per month. John Ezekiel J. Hirro