THE House of Representatives will set aside P50 million from its internal funds to vaccinate its employees and their immediate family members against coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) once a vaccine becomes available next year.
Appearing at the regular Ugnayan sa Batasan News Forum, Velasco said that keeping the legislative mill running is as important as keeping the House employees safe and free from the virus.
“Five of their immediate family members will be included mainly because we just want the legislative mill to be grinding,” Velasco said.
The Marinduque solon said members of the media covering the House will also get vaccines.
“Naisip ko rin po na ang ating media friends, we consider you as our family, we will include our media friends to be part of the vaccines,” Velasco said.
“We will get vaccines first for the employees and the media. Kapag may natira, that’s the time we will use them for the House members and their families,” he added.
Velasco was joined in the forum by House Majority Leader and Leyte Rep. Martin G. Romualdez.
Meanwhile, the Speaker attributed to unity as the reason the House passed numerous legislation, including the P4.506-trillion national budget for 2021, which will serve as the government’s “single-most powerful tool” to fight COVID-19 and help the economy and the people recover from the devastating impacts of the pandemic.
“Because of that unity in the House, we were able to pass pieces of legislation which were the legislative priorities of President Rodrigo Duterte,” Velasco said.
For next year, the Speaker said the House gears toward giving solution to bring back normality in the lives of the people.
“We are talking about ending the pandemic, and definitely we see the distribution of vaccines already in different countries. I believe that the IATF has already ordered roughly around 20 to 30 million vaccines for the country,” Velasco said.
