Presidential aspirant Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr. said more budget must be allotted for medical research, deeming it crucial in times like the ongoing health crisis.
Marcos, the standard-bearer of Partido Federal ng Pilipinas, said the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) was created in the 1980s and even after many years, it has shown its excellence as it was the only laboratory in the country that could test the Covid-19 in the early months of the pandemic.
However, Marcos pointed out that the RITM’s low budget caused many missed opportunities for the institution since it was tasked to plan and implement research programs for infectious and tropical diseases only.
“It is the opportune time for the RITM to study Covid. But over the years, it has not received the attention it deserves,” the presidential aspirant said.
“There have been a lot of missed opportunities but there is still a chance to do something right because we already know what the problem is. We know where we are weak and we should build up our research facilities. That is so important because ast that time, we did not have to deal with Covid, or this pandemic. Now that we are faced with it, this is a reminder for us to do it now,” he added.
Marcos also sees the need to strengthen the University of the Philippines’ National Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology (BIOTECH) noting that the country should be able to produce its own vaccine.
“We produced our own flu vaccines before at the University of the Philippines Los Baños and we were able to vaccinate 60 percent of the population. We can do it but we really need to strengthen and enhance the system. There are so many new technologies out there that we can take advantage of,” he said.