Vice President Leni Robredo on Sunday said private companies should be allowed to buy their own COVID-19 vaccine without the need to donate half of their purchases to the government.

In her radio program, Robredo said too much centralization may affect the vaccination rollout.

“Me, I’m okay that a donation is required but for me, let’s not make it hard for the business owners that want to purchase vaccine… The more vaccines we have, it will help everyone. We will easily reach herd immunity,” Robredo said.

She said the country should study how the United Arab Emirates and Israel managed to fast-track their vaccination rollout.

“There is an article on Bloomberg, based on their computation because of the slow rollout, it might take seven years before (the world) achieve the (target) number of vaccination. It is scary because the longer it would take, (the more) businesses are affected, the economy is affected, the education of the children is affected, the job is affected,” the vice president said.

“So the more people who can help, these private companies, should not be given a hard time. Maybe a proper protocol, proper regulation (is needed), because those that they will vaccinate will help the economy,” she added.

In the tripartite agreements that the government and the private sector have entered into with United Kingdom's AtraZeneca, half of the planned purchases of COVID-19 vaccines by the businesses would be donated to the government. Ella Dionisio/DMS