Lawmakers: Missed Pfizer deal smells of ‘kickvac’. Inquirer Newsletter. December 18, 2020

No images? Click here   FIERCE   Since mass gatherings remain restricted due to the pandemic, dancers tapped for the University of the Philippines’ annual Lantern Parade have their number recorded on video on Wednesday night. The video will be shown on Facebook on Friday. —LYN RILLON     News TRB, Tugade hit over RFID fiasco President Duterte threatened to sack “incompetent” members of the Toll Regulatory Board (TRB) after the cashless payment system failed, causing the recent traffic jams on North Luzon Expressway. Senators held Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade, the TRB chair, responsible for the fiasco. Mr. Duterte castigated the TRB for not fully testing the automatic toll collection system. —STORY BY JEROME ANING AND MELVIN GASCON Read more: newsinfo.inquirer.net   Regions 2 docs sued over gov bros’ deaths The family of Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia has filed a complaint of medical negligence against two doctors over the deaths in September of her brothers, Barili Mayor Marlon Garcia and former Dumanjug Mayor Nelson Garcia, who had been said to be recovering from COVID-19. Garcia said they were also preparing a damage suit against the private hospital where her brothers had been confined. —STORY BY DALE G. ISRAEL Read more: newsinfo.inquirer.net/regions   World Wuhan folk maintain virus not from city WUHAN—Residents said they welcomed the team of World Health Organization (WHO) investigators that would arrive in January to investigate the origins of the coronavirus. They hope the findings would prove that COVID-19 existed abroad before it was found in Huanan seafood market more than a year ago. Beijing, although strongly opposed to an international inquiry, said it was open to the WHO-led probe. —STORY BY REUTERS Read more: newsinfo.inquirer.net/World   Newsletter / Join us Has this been forwarded by a friend? Subscribe now to the Philippine Daily Inquirer Newsletter and get your latest news and important updates on COVID-19 and the enhanced community quarantine. Subscribe   Subscribe     Banner story Lawmakers: Missed Pfizer deal smells of ‘kickvac’ By Melvin Gascon Sen. Kiko Pangilinan on Thursday said some government officials may be held liable for graft over the government’s failure to secure a deal for 10 million doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine that US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had helped to arrange for the Philippines. In a statement, Pangilinan said the failure raised suspicion that the prospect of kickbacks might have motivated the government officials not to submit a document required by the US pharmaceutical giant. “We just hope it’s not an issue of ‘kickvac’ that led to the ‘dropping of the ball’ in the vaccine procurement,” Pangilinan said. “On the other hand, if it can be proved that the refusal to act within a reasonable time was intended to favor another party, then Section 3(f) of the antigraft law applies,” he said. Duque identified Pangilinan was commenting on news reports that Sen. Panfilo Lacson had named Health Secretary Francisco Duque III as the official who “dropped the ball” in the deal for 10 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine that Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. and Philippine Ambassador to the United States Jose Manuel “Babe” Romualdez had arranged with Pfizer with the help of Pompeo. In a series of tweets on Tuesday, Locsin disclosed that he and Romualdez had arranged for the delivery of the vaccine with Pompeo’s help, with the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) bankrolling the purchase. “That said, my thanks just the same to ... Pompeo. We—Babe Romualdez and I—got 10 million doses of Pfizer financed by World Bank and ADB to be shipped thru FedEx to Clark (airport) in January,” Locsin said. “BUT SOMEBODY DROPPED THE BALL. I have steel ball bearings. I just need a slingshot,” he added. Locsin did not name the official who mishandled the deal, but Lacson, citing information from Romualdez, said on Wednesday night it was Duque and that the health chief failed to submit a confidentiality disclosure agreement (CDA) that would have allowed the deal to go through. As a result of Duque’s failure, the Philippines missed the opportunity to get a COVID-19 vaccine as early as January, Lacson said. The opportunity went to Singapore instead, he said. The senator said the negotiations with Pfizer started as early as July and that Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III assured Locsin and Romualdez that money would be made available for the purchase of the vaccine. In a television interview on Thursday, Romualdez cited a “sense of urgency” at the time to sign the CDA but as it was taking too long for the government to sign it, he called the office of Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea to ask for help and learned that the matter was being handled by Duque’s office. Last 3 minutes “The Pfizer representative kept calling me following up ... So there really was a sense of urgency, we needed to work on it quickly and unfortunately we failed to sign it,” the ambassador said. “That’s why Secretary Locsin said somebody dropped the ball. In a way, it’s really like that, because the ball was here with us. It came from him. We passed it, but the ball got lost during the last three minutes,” he said. Romualdez, however, said talks with Pfizer were still going on and that a vaccine delivery would most likely happen in mid-2021. But he acknowledged that the government had missed the chance to get the vaccine earlier. Duque said he signed the CDA in October, but Lacson said in a radio interview on Thursday that could be referring to later talks with Pfizer. Pangilinan said the Senate would look into the neglect when it, sitting as a committee of the whole, inquires into the government’s vaccine program. “These allegations of negligence or incompetence in the procurement of vaccines must not be left unchecked if we are to prevent a failure in the massive vaccine rollout,” he said. “Failure due to corruption or incompetence in the vaccine rollout is not an option,” he added. Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said the matter was discussed during a meeting in Malacañang on Wednesday night and that President Duterte told Duque to explain his role in the negotiations with Pfizer. Duque, according to Roque, defended himself in a “lively, animated and emotional” way, after which the President advised him to answer Locsin’s allegations in the same manner. “I think from the overall demeanor of the President, he sees no major lapse because what is being discussed is a contract and Secretary Duque is not a lawyer. And no damage was done because we continue to negotiate with Pfizer,” Roque said at a press briefing. He also said that even if there was a statement that the Philippines was supposed to get the Pfizer vaccine in January, the truth was that wealthy countries had already secured Pfizer’s initial production of the vaccine. But the Philippines still expects to get the vaccine later next year, Roque said. “Let’s not speculate anymore. What’s important is that discussions continue and it looks like we will get Pfizer anytime between the second and third quarter of next year,” he said. Roque also said the “conflicting opinions” of Locsin and Duque did not really matter because in the end, the official in charge of procuring COVID-19 vaccines was Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. of the National Task Force Against COVID-19. “Everybody could fight if they want. But the President made it clear there’s only one person in charge of getting the vaccine. It’s Secretary Galvez,” he said. In the House of Representatives, lawmakers belonging to the Makabayan bloc are suspicious about Duque’s failure to sign the CDA in time to clinch the Pfizer deal. Leaning on China vaccines “President Duterte keeps talking about fighting corruption, but apparently even the vaccine procurement smells of corruption,” Bayan Muna Rep. Ferdinand Gaite told reporters in an online briefing on Thursday. Gaite said the neglect might have something to do with Galvez’s earlier statement that the Philippines’ first COVID-19 vaccine would be China’s Sinovac, the most expensive of the candidate vaccines. “Why is there a leaning on China vaccines?” the lawmaker asked. Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Zarate said the Makabayan bloc was “very much concerned” over issues surrounding the government’s vaccine procurement program. “The reports these past days seem to show that there is pandemic profiteering on the issue of vaccine procurement,” Zarate said. “We cannot understand the insistence of the administration on buying the very expensive Sinovac made by China,” he said. “We support the call to investigate this, especially on the appeal of health professionals on the [use of] Sinovac because there are still many questions regarding this vaccine,” he added. —WITH REPORTS FROM TINA G. SANTOS, LEILA B. SALAVERRIA AND NESTOR CORRALES Read more: newsinfo.inquirer.net   Editorial Dangerous Moves 'Someone at the Senate is now attempting to insert a provision in the GAA (General Appropriations Act) giving Comelec carte blanche authority to waive/disregard all the requirements and safeguards in Section 12 of the automated election law,' election lawyer Emil Marañon III tweeted on Nov. 29. 'THIS IS VERY DANGEROUS.' When the alarming matter came to light, Senate President Tito Sotto ordered Sen. Sonny Angara to delete the provision, and Sen. Imee Marcos, chair of the Senate electoral reforms committee,  condemned it as a 'very, very dangerous precedent' in a CNN TV interview a day after Marañon’s tweet. In a separate text message to ABS-CBN, Marcos said: 'I just saw the reported amendment but am completely opposed to waiving procurement safeguards.' And no, she added, she has 'no clue who the author (of the insertion) might be.' A lie, it turned out. As reported exclusively in this paper, it was Marcos herself who was behind the clandestine provision, according to one of three separate Inquirer sources who were privy to congressional consultations with poll watchdogs. Marcos’ eagerness to change the election system at this late hour, the provision she sneaked in to do away with election safeguards (fortunately foiled by right-thinking senators), even the lack of delicadeza in heading an electoral reform committee when her own brother, defeated vice presidential candidate Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, has a pending electoral protest, not to mention a history of election fraud under her father’s martial law regime—the overlapping red flags simply cannot be ignored by a vigilant public. Any insidious plans by anyone to derail the most basic expression of democracy must be unforgivingly nipped in the bud. Read full story: opinion.inquirer.net     Copyright © 2020 PHILIPPINE DAILY INQUIRER, All rights reserved. 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