BY NOREEN JAZUL
Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said Thursday there was no promise from Pfizer that it will provide the Philippines with 10 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine next month.
In an interview with CNN Philippines, Duque said the US-based pharmaceutical company did not give a “definitive” number of vaccine supply for the Philippines in their previous discussions.
“Walang ganon. It was all indicative numbers there was no definitive supply because…in the production of these vaccines as we are talking…meron daw problema sa kanilang raw materials…there was nothing binding, nothing in our talks so this was all open-ended,” Duque said when asked if Pfizer ever promised to give the country 10 million doses of its vaccine by January.
Earlier, Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. said he and Philippine Ambassador to the United States Jose Manuel Romualdez were able to secure 10 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine with the help of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo until “somebody dropped the ball.”
While Locsin did not disclose the name of the person he was referring to, Sen. Panfilo Lacson said it was Duque who “dropped the ball.”
Lacson, who had a phone conversation with Romualdez, said the Health Secretary failed to prepare the confidential disclosure agreement (CDA) which was one of the requirements for the procurement of the vaccines.
Duque defended himself from accusations that he did not act quick enough on the matter.
“We go through a process and when you go through a process, you can’t just be hurrying up things just like that. You have to be prudent and cautious, especially because you are talking about a brand new, a novel vaccine,” Duque said.
“Not only is this a novel vaccine, but the technology that it is using, the mRNA platform is also new, never been tried or tested,” he added.
Duque said that is it his overriding principle as a medical professional and a physican to “air on the side of caution.”
The health secretary also said that it was only on Aug. 11 when Pfizer sent a draft of the CDA, which was initially meant to be signed by Executive Secretary (ES) Salvador Medialdea representing the Office of the President (OP) on behalf of all the government agencies.
On Sept. 24, Duque said the Department of Health was advised by the OP that it will be the signatory to the CDA instead and requested the agency to hold a coordination meeting with Pfizer.
The following day, Sept. 25, Duque said the DoH had an alignment meeting with Pfizer on the matter, since Pfizer initially requested the OP to sign the CDA.
On Oct. 20. Duque said he signed the CDA.
When asked why it took him three weeks to sign the CDA, Duque said: “May mga provisions na di kami nag kakasundo.”
“May alteration, the process of going back and forth until when I asked Deputy Excutive Secretary Michael Ong on the day I was going to sign it, sabi ko ito ‘yung provision na medyo I have some discomfort, but he said it’s your judgment call,” Duque said.
“So I put my life in the line for this because I was thinking dapat siguro after some time, baka naman itong bakuna na ito would prove effective…so that was my judgment call,” he added.
As for why the OES decided to pass on the signing of the CDA to the DoH, Duque said: “The vaccine is health related it is directly aligned to the mandate of the DoH. That reason is well grounded.”
Duque reiterated that government needs to be cautious on procuring vaccines, especially new ones since it already had a “wrong experience” about vaccines in the past.
