By ROY C. MABASA
The procurement of COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) vaccines from drug manufacturer Pfizer is still “in progress” and the delivery to the Philippines will most likely happen in June 2021, Philippine Ambassador to the United States Jose Manuel Romualdez said on Wednesday.
Romualdez made this clarification after Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. earlier said that “someone dropped the ball” in the country’s procurement of some 10 million doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccines.
Romualdez, in an interview with CNN Philippines, said the supposed January 2021 delivery date was pushed back to around June next year due to the failure of the Philippines to “act quick enough” on the Confidential Disclosure Agreement (CDA) involving the procurement.
Because of this, the Philippine envoy said other countries like Singapore “got ahead of us.”
Romualdez also said that aside from Pfizer, negotiation with another US pharmaceutical Moderna is likewise “in progress” as he expressed hope that if the country can commit soon, “we can possibly get the delivery by mid next year.”
On Tuesday, Locsin disclosed in a tweet that he and Romualdez had already secured some 10 million doses of Pfizer vaccine with the help of US State Mike Pompeo until “somebody dropped the ball.”
Locsin, however, did not identify the people or person he was referring to in his tweet.