Palace to Robredo: Clarify stand on Chinese vaccines before infomercial with Duterte

MANILA, Philippines — Vice President Leni Robredo must first clarify her stand on COVID-19 vaccines developed by China before she appears with President Rodrigo Duterte in an infomercial to boost vaccine confidence, Malacañang said Friday.

Senator Joel Villanueva earlier suggested that Duterte and Robredo release a “joint public service announcement” to boost public confidence in the safety of COVID-19 vaccines.

“Unang una, linawin natin kung talagang tatanggapin ng Vice President ang lahat ng bakuna kasi nagkaroon siya ng mga unang deklarasyon na mukhang hindi rin siya approve sa mga Chinese vaccine at pinulitika rin po ‘yang issue na ‘yan,” Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said in a Laging Handa briefing.

(The VP has to first clarify her stand whether she would accept all vaccines because she earlier had a declaration that she does not approve of Chinese vaccines and this issue was politicized.)

“Para bagang may kapalit ‘yung ating WPS (West Philippine Sea) issue dito sa mga bakuna. Linawin muna natin kung anong paninindigan talaga ni VP Robredo,” he added.

(It was made to appear that the WPS is being exchanged for the vaccines. We must first know what is the stand of VP Robredo.)

Robredo or her office has yet to issue a statement on this.

The Vice President earlier backed the call of a group of doctors from the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) for a further review of China-based Sinovac BioTech’s COVID-19 vaccine CoronaVac.

So far, the Philippines has received 5.5 million doses of the CoronaVac vaccine.