Ball 'dropped'

THE procurement of Covid19 vaccine in the Philippines is already underway as those assigned to negotiate and source the vaccine have already made some progress.

However, as early as now, controversies have begun to ar i se.

In a Tweet on December 15, 2020, Department of Foreign Affairs Sec. Teddy Locsin Sr. said he and Philippine Ambassador to the United States Jose Manuel "Babe" Romualdez were able to secure "10 million doses of Pfizer financed by World Bank and ADB (Asian Development Bank) to be shipped through FedEx to Clark in January." This came after negotiations between Locsin and United State Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

"But somebody dropped the ball," Locsin said.

Senator Panfilo "Ping" Lacson, in a statement, said after a phone call with

Romualdez, the Philippines could have secured Pfizer's Covid-19 vaccine before Singapore.

Lacson said the "indifference" of Department of Health Sec. Francisco Duque has caused this important deal as he "failed to work on the necessary documentary requirement, namely, the Confidentiality Disclosure Agreement ( CDA) ."

"The country representative of Pfizer was even following up on the submission of such documentary requirement," Lacson said.

Meanwhile, Duque denied that the vaccine deal has not been botched.

Duque, in several reports, said negotiations are still ongoing for the Covid-19 vaccine of Pfizer.

"So there is no such thing as somebody dropping the ball. It is really an ongoing negotiation," Duque was quoted saying in a Philippine

Star report.

In a separate report by CNN Philippines, Romualdez said the vaccine deal with Pfizer did not totally fail but there will be delays as other countries were able to finalize deals earlier.

"Only pushed back to a later date of delivery possibly June next year because we did (not) act quick enough on the CDA (Confidential Disclosure Agreement). Other countries got ahead of us like Singapore," he said in a text message to CNN Philippines.

Now is not a good time for national government executives to make screw-ups in the finalization of Covid-19 deals. They should also make sure that everything is in order to ensure that we get the right deal as soon as possible.

We really do not know what really happened in the Pfizer deal or what was really discussed among the persons

concerned as there are internal matters that may not have been disclosed publicly.

However, this incident could serve as an eyeopener to the national government to ensure that there is a need for better coordination among government executives who are tasked to procure the vaccine for the country. As far as the public is concerned, vaccine czar Sec. Carlito Galvez Jr. is the person the president has assigned to be in charge of everything related to the Covid-19 vaccine. With different government officials issuing different statements on the vaccine deals, there is bound to be confusion, miscommunication, and, apparently, balls being "dropped."

At the end of the day, it is the Filipino people who will not benefit from failed vaccine deals. The Filipino people want to get back to how we used to live pre-pandemic. Lack of coordination among government workers and frictions among government leaders could further delay this.

How many more will have to die and how long will we have to remain under a public health emergency if internal frictions do not stop? Is it really that hard to work for the Filipino and give them what they deserve?---Sunnex