‘President defends Chinese Covid vaccines, gets 25 million doses’
DAVAO CITY – Following the reported deaths of at two dozen elderly people who had received the Pfizer Covid vaccine in Norway, President Duterte now asked Filipino senators, who are questioning his choice of the Chinese vaccine Sinovac, if they want to be inoculated with Pfizer.
Common adverse
reactions to messenger RNA vaccines – such as the Pfizer-BioNTech shot – include
fever, nausea, and diarrhoea. More than 48,000 people have been vaccinated in
Norway so far.
A number of
countries, including Norway’s neighbours Denmark, Finland, Iceland and Sweden,
have also reported post-vaccination deaths, but no direct links to the vaccine
have been established, according to reports.
“Ang akala siguro nitong mga — for lack of a better word, ayaw ko na
lang magsalita. Akala siguro nila ‘yung kontrata sa Sinovac, ‘yung kontrata sa
Pfizer… Ayan ‘yung sa Pfizer, gusto ninyong Pfizer, kayong mga senador? In
Norway, 25 persons died after receiving Pfizer vaccination. Gusto ninyo?
Mag-order kami para sa inyo. Iyon ang gusto ninyo paulit-ulit nandito sa
article ng Inquirer,” Duterte asked.
“Lahat kayo you apparently… Mas bilib kayo sa… Itong isa, Senator Risa
Hontiveros issued a similar call for the government to follow up Pfizer’s EU on
approval of FDA. Ngayon, kung kami ang magsalita, kung magsalita si ano siya na
‘yung nagpu-push ng Sinovac. Actually, may isa sa inyo nagsabi na ano… Ito ayaw
kong ‘yung pa-off tangent na mga tirada ninyo - eh bakit ba ito si Duterte
Sinovac nang Sinovac?” he added.
The Senate questioned Duterte’s choice of the Chinese vaccine which only
has about 50% efficacy compared to Pfizer’s 95% and Moderna’s 94%.
Duterte has publicly defended the government’s
preference of Sinovac and even signed a deal with the Chinese pharmaceutical
firm for 25 million doses despite its low efficacy rate against the deadly
Covid respiratory disease.
Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez refused to say how much
each dose of Sinovac vaccine cost citing confidentiality agreement.
Senator Panfilo Lacson said there is still a
long way to go as far as the government’s vaccination efforts are concerned,
the controversy involving Sinovac should be a hard lesson on honesty and
transparency for officials in the program.
Lacson said that had the officials been
forthright about the conditions of negotiations with Sinovac early on, there
would have been no speculations or suspicions about the matter.
“If they had been more forthright and honest
in their responses in our first hearing, hindi mafo-focus sa Sinovac,” he said in an
interview on ANC, stressing that while Congress – the Senate and House of
Representatives – are willing partners of the executive department, in return,
lawmakers “need to be informed also what happened to the appropriations we gave
you.”
“When the Senate hearings raised more
questions than answers about Sinovac, our officials were both tongue-tied and
stuttering, leaving us with a string of flip-flopping pronouncements,” Lacson added.
Ignore Them
But Duterte continues his attack on the
lawmakers for questioning his decision and told Galvez, a retired military
general, to just go on with his own game plan and ignore the senate
investigation.
“Now, I’m
telling General Galvez yun game plan niya sundin niya. With or without the
investigation, proceed and implement what we planned to do kasi pinagpaguran mo
yan. Never mind about the investigation kasi mas lalong matagalan tayo kung
nandiyan na ‘yung bakuna magdating na,” he said, adding that Beijing pledges to
donate 500,000 doses to the government.
Duterte also trumpeted his talks
with Chinese President Xi Jinping whom he asked a favor to include the
Philippines in the list of vaccine recipients.
“Hoy, kung sino ka man ganito
‘yan. Long before na pumutok ito tumawag na ako kay President Xi Jinping. Tapos
sabi ko wala kaming resources, we do not know how to make it. Please do not
forget the Philippines. Sabi niya - but please remember that we will
first vaccinate all of our citizens and they run into billions - at saka ‘yung
mga allied ano nila. Mayroon sila… Hindi nga magkasya kasi ‘yung may mga
province under their control. Let alone the — ‘yung Tibet, eh in-annex nila,
obligado sila diyan,” he said.
Duterte even taunted the
lawmakers for their investigation into the vaccine funds.
“So about time na you just — a little bit — i-ano ninyo ‘yang utak sa
corruption-corruption. I don’t know why you are so occupied sa mga corruption.
Now, maghanap kayo hindi dito, baka sa inyo. Baka sa departamento ninyo, hindi
dito sa akin,” the president said.
Senate Hearing
Lacson debunked insinuations that some
senators had personal or political motivations in the hearings. “I haven’t
heard of any senator who has expressed preference for the Pfizer vaccine or any
brand for that matter. What we are doing in the Senate is an exercise of our
oversight function over the appropriations laws that we passed, particularly on
the purchase of the vaccines,” he said.
“There is no personal or political agenda
involved in our inquiry as insinuated by Sec. Carlito Galvez Jr. earlier. Most
of us who participated in the public hearings of the Committee of the Whole
merely want to get straightforward and honest responses from the concerned
authorities so we will be informed for our future reference in our legislative
work. Instead, the resource persons were groping, inconsistent, flip-flopping
and even evasive in their responses – hence our misgivings and apprehensiveness,”
he added.
He recalled that when the Senate conducted
inquiries on the anomalies in the Bureau of Customs, Bureau of Corrections and
Philippine Health Insurance Corporation, enough information was gathered that
led to the filing of criminal and administrative cases by the Department of
Justice and the Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission against those involved
in corruption.
“Isn’t that how the executive and legislative
departments work as a team in fighting corruption?” he asked.
Many Filipinos do want Sinovac and prefer the vaccines from Pfizer or
Moderna and Johnson & Johnson. (Mindanao Examiner)
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