Find the best vaccine, put geopolitics aside, Zubiri urges Duterte

MANILA, Philippines – Malacañang should put geopolitics aside for now and prioritize finding the best coronavirus vaccine available, rather than giving preferential treatment to China’s more expensive and less effective Sinovac brand, said Sunday on Sunday. Senate Majority Leader, Juan Miguel Zubiri.

Zubiri made the call a day after President Rodrigo Duterte threatened to move forward with the termination of the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) unless the United States guaranteed at least 20 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines for the Philippines.

He urged Duterte to “temporarily stop looking at our geopolitical relationship” with China and the United States, among other allies, and focus instead on the well-being of the Filipino people.

“What I ask Malacañang is to choose the best [vaccine]”Said the senator in a radio interview, noting that even China recently ordered 100 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine jointly developed by Pfizer of the United States and BioNTech of Germany.

“We have so few resources. Tax collection is low. Not enough cash circulating. Let us [put our money] to maximum use. We need the most affordable [option] and most importantly, reviewed by science, ”he said.

Guaranteed participation

Malacañang explained that the president only wanted a guaranteed portion of the US vaccines for the Philippines when he threatened to proceed with the termination of the VFA.

The Philippines is also not asking for free vaccines, said presidential spokesman Harry Roque in a radio interview.

“[W]We will pay for the vaccinations. The problem is the supply. What the president says is at least give us supplies. We are not begging. We have money to pay for vaccines and we will pay, ”said Roque.

“In fact, the private sector, local governments are allocating funds to buy vaccines. But the question is the availability of supply ”, he said.

“If the United States wants to renew the VFA in its national interest, it is important that the Philippines insure American vaccines because that is our national interest,” Roque said. “So that’s what the president meant, that he would not allow the Philippines to be treated unfairly by its former colonial master. The relationship must be balanced. No vaccine, no VFA. “

Zubiri expanded on his earlier statement calling on the government to reconsider plans to acquire the COVID-19 vaccine developed in China after reports that its efficacy was only 50 percent, paling in comparison to other pharmaceuticals such as Pfizer-BioNTech and AstraZeneca del UK.

“Let’s not rely on 50 percent efficiency, for the sake of [the] Filipino people, ”he said.

Alternatives

“COVID is not a joke. I got infected twice. This is not a joke, ”said Zubiri, who has recovered after testing positive for the coronavirus twice.

The senator said he understood Duterte’s “frustration” after the president took advantage of VFAs in the vaccine procurement talks.

“If they can’t administer a minimum of 20 million vaccines, they better leave. There is no vaccine, it does not stay here, ”Duterte said during a meeting in Malacañang on Saturday, alluding to the VFA, a 1999 agreement that allows periodic visits by US troops to the Philippines and the holding of war games with Filipino soldiers.

In February, Duterte announced the termination of the VFA, citing the country’s independent foreign policy. But in June, Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. said the annulment had been suspended amid the pandemic and geopolitical tensions.

Zubiri said the president’s threat could have been a sign of his growing anger “because other countries have gotten ahead of us” in purchasing COVID-19 vaccines.

“However, we have other alternatives anyway. India has one and requires two doses for just P366 per person. It is very cheap but we have other options. Pfizer is one of them, but we should look at others, ”he said.

Modern vaccine

“My only attraction is that we choose a vaccine that is effective but profitable, or not too expensive, so we can buy many,” Zubiri said. Locsin said the Philippines would have a “full range of vaccines, from [the] less effective for [the] more available [one], so that everyone can choose. “

In a Twitter post on Sunday, the foreign secretary cited information from the Philippine ambassador to the United States, José Manuel “Babe” Romualdez, that the American biotech company Moderna was “accelerating a huge shipment” of its COVID-vaccine. 19 to the Philippines.

Last week, Romualdez said Moderna and another pharmaceutical company, Arcturus Therapeutics Holdings Inc., were willing to supply the Philippines with 4 to 25 million doses of its vaccines starting in the third quarter of 2021 “if the Philippine government deems their proposals “.

Failed deal

Earlier, Locsin said that US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had pledged to help the Philippines obtain vaccines from Pfizer after a failed deal that cost the country 10 million doses of the US company’s vaccine.

On Sunday, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said he knew nothing about the president’s claim that many Filipinos, including security forces, had already been vaccinated against COVID-19, using the vaccine developed by Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinopharm.

Duterte spoke about local vaccines during a televised cabinet meeting on Saturday, but Duque said no COVID-19 vaccine had been authorized for emergency use in the Philippines.

“What you heard is also what I heard. I will have to give the president the basis of his statement, “he said in an online press conference on Sunday.

—With reporting from Krissy Aguilar, Tina G. Santos, and Dona Z. Pazzibugan

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