Find best vaccine, set aside geopolitics, Zubiri urges Duterte

MANILA, Philippines — Malacañang needs to set aside geopolitics for now and give priority to finding the best coronavirus vaccine available, instead of giving preferential treatment to China’s more expensive and less effective Sinovac brand, Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri said on Sunday.

Zubiri made the call a day after President Rodrigo Duterte threatened to go ahead 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 instead focus on the welfare of the Filipino people.

“What I am asking Malacañang is to choose the best [vaccine],” the senator said in a radio interview, pointing out that even China recently ordered 100 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine codeveloped by Pfizer of the United States and BioNTech of Germany.

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

Guaranteed share

Malacañang explained that the President only wanted a guaranteed share of 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, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said in a radio interview.

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

“In fact, the private sector, the 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 for its national interest, it is important for the Philippines to secure US vaccines because that’s our national interest,” Roque said. “So that’s what the President wanted to say, that he would not allow the Philippines to be treated unfairly by its former colonial master. The relationship should be balanced. No vaccine, no VFA.”

Zubiri expanded on his earlier statement asking the government to reconsider plans to procure the Chinese-deve­loped COVID-19 vaccine following reports that its efficacy stood only at 50 percent, paling in comparison with other pharmaceuticals such as Pfizer-­BioNTech and United Kingdom’s AstraZeneca.

“Let us not rely on 50-percent efficacy, for the sake of [the] Filipino people,” he said.

Alternatives

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

The senator said he understood Mr. Duterte’s “frustration” after the President leveraged the VFA in vaccine procurement talks.

“If they are not able to deliver a minimum of 20 million vaccines, they better get out. No vaccine, no stay here,” Duterte said during a meeting in Malacañang on Saturday, alluding to the VFA, a 1999 agreement allowing periodic visits of American troops in 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 nullification had been suspended amid the pandemic and geopolitical tensions.

Zubiri said the President’s threat might have been a sign of his growing anger “because other countries have jumped ahead of us” in procuring COVID-19 vaccines.

“Nevertheless, we have other alternatives anyway. India has one and it requires two doses for only P366 per person. It’s really cheap but we have other options. Pfizer is one of them but we should look at others,” he said.

Moderna vaccine

“My only appeal is we choose a vaccine that is effective yet cost-effective, or not too expensive, so we can buy a lot of them,” Zubiri said.Locsin said the Philippines would have a “complete range of vaccines, from [the] least effective to [the] most available [one], for everyone to choose from.”

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

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

Botched deal

Earlier, Locsin said US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had committed to help the Philippines secure vaccines from Pfizer after a botched 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 inoculated against COVID-19, using the vaccine developed by the Chinese drugmaker Sinopharm.

Duterte spoke about the local vaccinations 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 defer to the President the basis of his statement,” he said in an online press briefing on Sunday.

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