MANILA, Philippines — “Parang hindi Pangulo yung nagsasalita. Sobrang pikon (He doesn’t seem to be behaving like a President. He’s so quick-tempered).
This was Vice President Leni Robredo’s response to President Rodrigo Duterte’s latest outburst, daring her to shop overseas for COVID-19 vaccines.
“Parati naman sinasabi kapag pikon ka, talo ka di ba? Dapat sa trabaho namin di kami napipikon eh,” Robredo said in an interview for the GMA News program “The Mangahas Interviews” aired Wednesday.
(People often say that if you’re quick-tempered, you’ll lose the argument. When you’re in our profession, you shouldn’t lose your temper easily.)
“Kasi sa trabaho namin, kailangan yung tao malayang mag-criticize eh. Kailangan yung tao, malayang magbigay ng suggestions, kasi yun yung makabubuti sa aming panunungkulan,” she later added.
(In our job, the people should have the freedom to criticize. The people should have the freedom to give suggestions on how to do our job better.)
Duterte raged in his public address Monday night, saying he would fund Robredo’s purchases solely to procure the Philippines’ COVID-19 vaccines.
READ: Duterte dares Leni: I’ll give you the money, go shop for Covid vaccines
This followed the Vice President’s calls for Sinovac Biotech’s vaccine to be reviewed, as 600,000 doses arrived on Sunday. This makes the Philippines the last Southeast Asian country to conduct COVID-19 testing.
READ: Robredo, Pangilinan call for HTAC review on donated Sinovac vaccine
Robredo said that she had warned about this from the start, saying: “Ito na nga yung sinasabi natin from the very start. talagang mahihirapan tayo pag hindi tayo maagap.”
(This was what I’ve been warning about. If we don’t act fast, we’ll be having a hard time catching up.)
“Kahit bigyan mo ako ng napakaraming pera, di na tayo bwelong bumili kasi late na tayo gumalaw eh,” she later lamented.
(Even if you give me a lot of money, we cannot do it, as we failed to act quickly.)