Opposition Senator Francis “Kiko” N. Pangilinan on Wednesday called on the Department of Health (DOH) to reconsider its order to purchase of Sinovac vaccines following the results of a new study in Brazil showing a 50.4-percent efficacy rate of the China-made vaccine.
Published December 30, 2020, 9:16 AM
Opposition Senator Francis ‘’Kiko’’ N. Pangilinan on Wednesday said the whole brouhaha about the inoculation of Presidential Security Group (PSG) soldiers and other government officials with the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) vaccine from China exposes the lack of a clear, fair, and sound game plan on the control and management of the disease.
Senator Francis Pangilinan (Senate of the Philippines / MANILA BULLETIN)
“Vacc-it nauna sila? Di ba meron ng guidelines ng mga mauuna sa mga bakuna kontra sa Covid na IATF (Inter-Agency Task Force) din ang naglabas? Di ba dapat mauna ang health front-liners? Vacc-it sinusuway ang sariling patakaran? Pati ang patakaran ng Food and Drug Administration (FDA) na kailangang suriin kung mabisa at ligtas nga ang mga ito ay sinusuway rin,” Pangilinan said, combining “vaccine” and “bakit”, the Filipino word for why. (Why were they vaccinated first? Aren’t there IATF guidelines on who are give
Senator Francis Pangilinan
(Senate of the Philippines / FILE PHOTO / MANILA BULLETIN)
“Huwag naman sana na may issue ng ‘kickvacc’ sa dropping of the ball ng Pfizer vaccine procurement,” he said when asked about the disclosure that some government officials failed to work on documents required by the US pharmaceutical giant. (I hope there is no kickback in the ‘’dropping of the ball’’ in the Pfizer vaccine procurement.)
The ‘vacc’ Pangilinan was referring to may be COVID-19 vaccine.
Asked about the possible liability of those involved, Pangilinan said: “If it can be established that there was inexcusable failure to act that has led to injury either to the government or any party then Section 3e of the Anti-Graft Law will apply.”
Senator Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan (Senate of the Philippines / MANILA BULLETIN)
Pangilinan, who spearheaded the move to convene the Senate Committee of the Whole hearing on the government’s COVID-19 vaccination program, said the government should be transparent in its plans for vaccine procurement to ensure that not a single peso is wasted or corrupted.
‘’We are still reeling from the still unsolved issues of missing P15-billion PhilHealth (Philippine Health Insurance Corporation) funds and from other wanton spending of people’s money such as the Manila Bay white sands. We have to be vigilant to how the vaccine funds and all government funds will be disposed,” he said.