FORMER Senator Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr. batted for a bigger budget for medical research in order to strengthen the country’s capability especially during a pandemic.

The standard bearer of the Partido Federal ng Pilipinas lamented that the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine, which was founded in the 1980s, has not been given much importance in past years.

He lauded the agency for showing excellence by becoming the country’s only laboratory capable of testing Covid19 samples in the early months of the pandemic.

Marcos noted that the research center’s low budget resulted in many missed chances for the RITM, which was only responsible with planning and implementing research programs for infectious and tropical diseases.

“Sayang naman at maraming missed opportunities pero may pagkakataon pa tayo, alam na natin ang problema. Alam na natin kung saan tayo nagkulang. I-build up natin ‘yung mga facilities ng ating mga research. Napakaimportante, kasi naman ‘di natin iniisip dahil wala naman noong Covid, wala namang pandemya, ngayong may pandemya, pinaaalala sa atin na kailangang gawin ang lahat ng ito,” he said.

Marcos recalled that the University of the Philippines manufactured flu vaccines to inoculate 60 percent of the population.

“Dati gumagawa na tayo ng sarili nating flu vaccine, ginagawa sa UPLB (UP-Los Banos) at nakakapagbakuna ng 60 percent ng population. Kaya naman natin gawin pero kailangang pagtibayin at pagandahin ang sistema. Ang daming bagong teknolohiya na puwedeng i-take advantage,” he said.