Palace disagrees with Drilon: No mismanagement in vaccine deliveries

By Prince Golez

Malacañang on Monday rejected the claim made by Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon that the delayed shipments of Covid-19 vaccine doses to the country were due to “mismanagement.”

In his virtual presser, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said Drilon was entitled to his opinion but denied there was mismanagement in the handling of vaccine supply contracts.

“We obviously disagree. Malinaw po yan. Meron tayong liham. Hindi made-deny ang liham na galing sa COVAX na mid-February darating ang Pfizer atsaka AstraZeneca. Kaya nga lang po, may mga natakot na manufacturers,” explained Roque.

The absence of an indemnification law has delayed the delivery of Covid-19 vaccines developed by Pfizer-BioNTech and AstraZeneca to the Philippines.

The law gives drugmakers guarantee that the government will assume responsibility should people suffer from severe side effects from the Covid-19 vaccination.

“Dahil dito lang sa Pilipinas nadedemanda ang mga bakuna na inaprubahan hindi lang ng FDA kung hindi ng WHO. Siyempre kinakailangan protektahan nila ang kanilang interes baka mamaya makulong sila, eh sila nga gumagawa ng bakuna para sa Covid-19,” the secretary said referring to Sanofi’s controversial dengue vaccine Dengvaxia.

Roque also had a message to critics of the Duterte administration: “Sandali lang po ang kaligayahan ng ating mga kritiko dahil tuloy na po ang ating vaccination program. Enjoy it while it lasts for a very short while.”

Source: Latest Politics News Today (Politics.com.ph)