Gordon defends gov’t on 27 million expiring vaccines: They have to defend the public
Senator Richard Gordon on Monday said the government was not to be blamed for the 27 million vaccine doses that are near expiration as they were bought “out of fear” to protect Filipinos against COVID-19.
“I’m not going to blame them for that because they have to defend the public. Tama rin naman ang ginagawa (they did the right thing),” he said in an ANC interview.
This came after Presidential Adviser for Entrepreneurship Jose “Joey” Concepcion III said that about 27 million shots acquired by the government were expiring in July.
Gordon then explained that the millions of doses were bought by the government in fear that the Philippines would run out of vaccine supplies that were coming from other countries.
“Pagka nagkakalampagan at hindi tayo naghanda, bibili tayo’t bibili nang marami dahil mauubusan tayo eh. And that’s exactly what happened, naubusan tayo. So, natakot tayo na baka maubusan tayo, bumili tayo nang bumili,” he said.
(When there is a disaster and we don’t prepare, we will buy a lot because we will run out of supplies. That’s exactly what happened, we ran out of vaccines earlier. We were afraid of that, that’s why we bought a lot.)
Gordon added that the government would only face criticism if they did something wrong in connection with the procurement of the said millions of vaccines.
“That’s something we have to face up with. Unless may kalokohang ginawa, talagang masasabit talaga ang gobyerno diyan dahil marami silang binili (unless if there was some misconduct involved, the government would be liable in that case because they bought a lot)," he added.
Health Secretary Francisco Duque III previously said the government was looking to donate COVID-19 vaccine doses to Myanmar, Cambodia, and some African countries, as the country’s current supply was “stable.”
A total of 239,778,000 vaccine doses arrived in the Philippines as of March 24, the National Task Force (NTF) Against COVID-19 noted.
Based on the DOH’s national COVID-19 vaccination dashboard, at least 142 million doses have already been administered in the country as of March 30.
Of this number, 65.8 million Filipinos are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, while 64.3 million have received one dose. Some 12 million individuals have received booster shots.
The government is eyeing to fully vaccinate 90 million by the time President Rodrigo Duterte steps down from office on June 30. — DVM, GMA News