Senator Grace Poe said Friday the government’s alleged failure to secure 10 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer by January 21 is “tragic” and “almost criminal.”
“I think it’s really tragic and, to an extent, criminal on their part for having missed the chance of acquiring 10 million vaccines,” Poe said in an interview on CNN Philippines.
“‘Yung leadership ng DOH urong-sulong, hindi makagawa ng desisyon, ‘di makabigay ng tamang rekomendasyon. We missed it. Our chance to get that was given to Singapore because they could act decisively, and we can’t,” she added.
“How many lives would be lost because of that lost opportunity?”
Poe noted that many Filipinos are already getting tired of quarantine restrictions, and the economy continues to suffer because the government could not tame the new coronavirus.
On Tuesday, Senator Panfilo Lacson revealed that Health Secretary Francisco Duque’s failure cost the Philippines 10 million doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, which was supposed to be delivered by January 2021.
According to Lacson, he talked to Philippine Ambassador to the US, Jose Manuel Romualdez, about the matter. Romualdez arranged the meeting between US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. in which the purchase of the vaccines was discussed.
Poe: Missing early supplies of Pfizer vaccines ‘almost criminal’
“Thus, they could have secured the delivery of 10 million Pfizer vaccines as early as January next year, way ahead of Singapore but for the indifference of Sec Duque who failed to work on the necessary documentary requirement namely, the Confidentiality Disclosure Agreement (CDA) as he should have done,” the senator said in a statement.
Lacson said Pfizer’s representative in the country was even following up on submitting such documentary requirements.
However, Duque said Pfizer does not have a 10 million vaccine promise made to the Philippine government.
“I don’t recall na may ganoong definite na makakakuha kayo ng 10 million doses, there was nothing like it, everything was indicative… There is no such thing as I did not act quick enough. You go through a process… No deadline was set by Pfizer, nothing in all our documents,” he said.