Manila Times Editorial（28-12-2020）
WE frankly cannot comprehend why President Rodrigo Duterte and Palace communicators have brought up the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) with the United States in addressing the challenge of securing for the country a supply of adequate, effective and safe vaccines against the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).
The principal complaint of the opposition and the public is that the government appears to have focused and committed to purchase millions of doses of vaccines that have not completed their clinical trials and have not proven their efficacy and safety to the satisfaction of public health experts.
Through vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr., we are hooking up with the Astra/Zeneca and Sinovac vaccines, and look to the delivery of these drugs this coming year.
This has been roundly criticized because our authorities have not moved aggressively to secure supplies of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines from the US, which were first to come out of the vaccine pipeline and have been proven to have 95- and 94-percent efficacy rates, respectively.
Then, from out of the blue, President Duterte, in a speech late Saturday, demanded at least 20 million doses of Covid vaccines from the US as a condition for lifting the termination of the VFA.
Last February, the government, on instructions of the President, sent a notice of termination of the VFA to the US Embassy. It is supposed to take effect in August.
The scrapping of the VFA was shelved for six months in June, however. The six-month suspension ends this December.
Explaining the President’s recent move, Palace spokesman Harry Ropque Jr. said the government was not seeking to get free vaccines from the US, but only wante to secure a sure supply of US vaccines.
He told Teleradyo: “Hindi po, babayaran po natin. Ang problema lang po, ‘yung supply. Ang sinasabi ng Presidente, at least bigyan niyo kami ng supply. Hindi naman tayo nanlilimos, meron naman tayong perang pambayad dyan at babayaran natin (No, we will pay. The problem is the supply. The President is saying that they should at least give us a supply. We’re not begging, we have money to pay for that and we will pay).”
“Kung kinakailangan nilang ma-renew ‘yung kanilang VFA para sa kanilang pangnasyonal na interes, importante sa Pilipinas na mabigay naman sila ng vaccine dahil ‘yan ang kinakailangan natin para sa nasyonal na interes (If they want to renew the VFA for their national interest, it is important for the Philippines to secure their vaccines because that’s for our national interest),” he added.
“That’s what the President meant. He won’t allow for us to be under our former colonial masters. Our relationship should be fair and if the vaccine supply is not given to us, the President says we bid goodbye to the VFA,” the spokesman continued.
But why ever is the VFA involved in the vaccine issue at all?
Until the President‘s statement and Roque’s explanation, the Covid-19 pandemic and the VFA were totally unrelated and had not heard of each other. It seems as if Roque wants the two to contaminate each other.
The Trump administration does not have control over the manufacture, sale and distribution of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. All the US government has is its own vaccine supplies for the American people. It gets nothing for free.
Is this a roundabout way of suggesting that the US should share some of its own supplies with the Philippines?
As we went to press, we read in the news that the US government has placed an additional order of 100 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine.
At the same time, we also read in the news that US biotechnology company Moderna is accelerating a huge shipment of Covid-19 vaccines to the Philippines, according to Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. He cited information from Philippine Ambassador to the US Jose Romualdez, who said Moderna and another company, Arcturus Therapeutics Holdings, are willing to supply up to 25 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines to the Philippines in the third quarter of 2021.
Perhaps, if spokesman Roque can be kept away from the issue, the vaccines will materialize without fuss.