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Friday, January 22, 2021

Duterte offers Pfizer to Senators

 ‘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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