Philippine Ambassador to the United States Jose Manuel “Babe” Romualdez could access Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines by June 2021.
This was after Romualdez revealed that the country missed the chance to get an early supply of 10 million Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines supposed to be delivered by January next year.
Romualdez said this schedule was according to Pfizer’s own estimate.
“We did what we could here and talking to them and moving it quickly and that’s why what Secretary Locsin said ‘somebody dropped the ball,’ eh in a way parang ganun na nga ‘yun kasi siyempre ‘yung bola nandito sa amin, galing sa kanya, pinasa namin, eh yung bola nawala, eh last three minutes eh. But, it’s okay, we’re still in play, hindi naman tapos ‘yung game,” Romualdez said.
Romualdez said that Locsin and the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo were already talking about including the Philippines as one of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccines’ early buyers. This was in early July.
The ambassador said Pfizer told the Philippine Embassy in Washington that it is now accepting orders and that the Confidentiality Disclosure Agreement (CDA) is needed to put the Philippines on the list.
PH to get Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines by June 2021
DOH Secretary Duque said he signed the CDA for Pfizer’s vaccine in October and insisted “there’s no such thing as ‘dropping the ball’ in the supposed Pfizer vaccine delivery in January 2021.
According to Romualdez, he doesn’t know how the Manila officials evaluated and processed the approval of the CDA with Pfizer. Unfortunately, the “sense of urgency” was not met to sign the CDA.
“Hindi nga napirmahan eh so October na eh, tawag ng tawag sa akin ‘yung taga Pfizer following up na kung hindi tayo gumalaw kaagad eh ‘yung pinag-usapan nila ni Secretary Locsin at Secretary Pompeo eh medyo magiging problema. So talagang may sense of urgency we needed to work on it quickly and unfortunately hindi nga natin napirmahan agad,” he said.
Romualdez also clarified that Pfizer, not Moderna, did not ask for a downpayment before it committed to supplying vaccines to the Philippines.
“Politics should be out, we should throw that out the window, walang mangyayari sa atin diyan when we talk that way na maraming mga nag-iintriga diyan kung anu-ano sinasabi nila,” said Romualdez.