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More than a year into the COVID-19 pandemic, it is already indubitable by now that the adverse impact is not only on the health and safety of the populace but their livelihood as well. The Philippines in particular, has imposed one of the longest, if not the longest, lockdowns and this has taken a heavy and serious toll on the economy.

The vaccination program in the Philippines is currently underway, but it seems that the
virus is spreading faster than the government can vaccinate its people. One of the
solutions proposed to ease the burden from the government and augment its current
efforts is to allow the private sector to procure and import vaccines directly from the
manufacturers and pharmaceutical companies. However, the current Philippine
regulations on the sale and importation of vaccines makes this challenging.

The surge in the COVID-19 cases in the country comes with an increase in the morbidity and mortality rate. To curb the devastating effects of the virus, one concrete solution is to vaccinate the populace against the SARS CoV-2 virus. The limited supply of the vaccines, however, led the National Government to come up with a Deployment and Vaccination Plan for COVID-19 Vaccines, listing the priority population groups who can first benefit from the vaccine rollout.

To mitigate the dire financial and economic effects brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, Congress enacted Republic Act No. 11534 otherwise known as the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises Act or CREATE.