Sunday, January 10, 2021

PSG jabs not on Senate agenda. Inquirer Newsletter. January 11, 2021

DEVOTEES Several people still trooped to Quiapo Church on Sunday, a day after the Feast of the Black Nazarene. —MARIANNE BERMUDEZ

Board Talk

Create is the only choice!

At the forthcoming legislature’s bicameral conference on corporate tax reform, it should only be a choice between Corporate Income Tax Incentives Rationalization Act (Citira), or House Bill 4157, and Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises (Create), or Senate bill 1357. —STORY BY Benedicta “Dick” Du-Baladad

Read more: business.inquirer.net

World

Pompeo lifts restraints on US-Taiwan contacts

WASHINGTON—Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Saturday said he was lifting restrictions on contacts between US officials and their Taiwanese counterparts, a move likely to anger China and increase tensions between Beijing and Washington in the waning days of President Donald Trump’s presidency. —STORY BY REUTERS

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.

Banner story

PSG jabs not on Senate agenda

By DJ Yap

Will they ignore the elephant in the room?

The senators launch their inquiry into the government’s coronavirus vaccination program on Monday to find answers to questions about the overall plan and sourcing of P72.5 billion for vaccines, how soon front-line health workers can be inoculated, and how health officials may have dropped the ball on earlier deals to procure millions of doses of the globally sought shots.

But all ears are going to be on whether the senators discuss a peripheral but politically charged issue that President Duterte has warned them to steer clear of—how and why members of the Presidential Security Group (PSG) have been inoculated with a China-made vaccine that has not yet been approved by the Philippine regulator and entered the country without the knowledge of customs authorities.

Senate President Vicente Sotto III said on Sunday he would not stop his colleagues from bringing up the matter at Monday’s hearing but there was a catch.

“Anyone can raise the issue when he or she has the floor—but who will answer? I did not invite any official connected to that issue because it’s not [on] the agenda,” he told the Inquirer in a Viber message.

In a radio interview on Saturday, the Senate leader said he might put the matter to a vote. “If the Senate majority decides, ‘yes, let’s do it,’ I can’t do anything about it, right? We will follow [the will of the majority]. But I seriously doubt it. We will be sidetracked,” he said.

“I am sure majority of the members of the Senate will be thinking the same way—I have consulted most of them. The thinking is, ‘do not divert the issue, do not divert the attention of the committee of the whole,’” Sotto said.

“The main concern of the committee of the whole is the road map, how can we resolve the COVID-19 problem?” he said.

Some of the Cabinet officials who have confirmed attendance in Monday’s hearing are the head of the vaccine program, Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr., Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, Budget Secretary Wendel Avisado, and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Director General Rolando Domingo, according to Sotto’s office. --INQ

Editorial

Taxing vehicle imports

The local automotive industry was estimated to have suffered a nearly 50-percent decline in sales last year, not only because of the COVID-19 pandemic but also due to the disruption in supply caused by the eruption of Taal volcano in January 2020 and a series of typhoons that struck the country.

Read full story: opinion.inquirer.net