Ball dropped but we're still in play, Philippine envoy says of access to Pfizer vaccine

Philippine Ambassador to the United States Jose Manuel "Babe" Romualdez doesn't want to dwell on how the Philippines missed its chance to access around 10 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer-BioNTech as early as January 2021.

But the fact, according to Romualdez, remains that the time for the Philippines to get the Pfizer vaccine early is gone because the government failed to submit the required Confidentiality Disclosure Agreement (CDA) on time.

"It took time for us to respond, so I called up the office of Secretary (Salvador) Medialdea and asked him if he can help us in getting that done and it was in fact the office of Secretary (Francisco) Duque, so I guess that's where this whole 'dropping the ball' issue came about," said Romualdez in an interview on Wednesday, referring to the phrase Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. used in a tweet about the incident.

'Pfizer still with us' 

"But nonetheless Pfizer is still with us and they're still talking to us and hopefully, we can get access to their vaccines. But the time for us to be able to get it earlier like Canada, Bahrain, and Singapore and others is gone because we needed to act quickly," he added.

As early as July, according to Romualdez, Locsin and the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo were already talking to include the Philippines on the list of early buyers of Pfizer's COVID vaccine.

Romualdez said Pfizer informed the Philippine Embassy in Washington that it is now ready to accept orders and that the CDA is required to put the Philippines in line of interested countries.

In a television interview on Thursday, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said the CDA was supposed to be signed by the Office of the Executive Secretary on behalf of the Office of the President.

“That would have spared Pfizer from signing a confidentiality agreement with many other government agencies, so isa na lang dapat,” he told ANC.

Duque said he signed the CDA for Pfizer's vaccine in October. Amid criticism, he said on Wednesday that "there's no such thing as 'dropping the ball' in the process of getting the vaccine from Pfizer."

Duque also said negotiations with Pfizer are still underway.

Romualdez said he doesn't know nor wants to judge how officials in Manila assessed and checked the approval of the CDA with Pfizer, but said there was a "sense of urgency" needed at that time to sign the CDA. Unfortunately, he said, that was not met.

"Hindi nga napirmahan eh so October na eh, tawag ng tawag sa akin 'yung taga Pfizer following up na kung hindi tayo gumalaw kaagad eh 'yung pinag-usapan nila ni Secretary Locsin at Secretary Pompeo eh medyo magiging problema. So talagang may sense of urgency we needed to work on it quickly and unfortunately hindi nga natin napirmahan agad," he said.

Game not over

Because the Philippines missed out on the chance to acquire the 10 million doses of Pfizer vaccine as early as January 2021, the Philippines, according to Romualdez, will settle for the possible acquisition of COVID vaccines in June 2021.

This was according to Pfizer's own estimate, according to Romualdez.

"We did what we could here and talking to them and moving it quickly and that's why what Secretary Locsin said 'somebody dropped the ball,' eh in a way parang ganun na nga 'yun kasi siyempre 'yung bola nandito sa amin, galing sa kanya, pinasa namin, eh yung bola nawala, eh last three minutes eh. But, it's okay, we're still in play, hindi naman tapos 'yung game," Romualdez said.

Romualdez also said Pfizer did not ask for any downpayment before accepting or committing its vaccine, as he dismissed speculations that it may have caused the delay and eventual failure to acquire the Pfizer COVID vaccine by January of 2021.

No politics, pls

"Politics should be out, we should throw that out the window, walang mangyayari sa atin diyan when we talk that way na maraming mga nag-iintriga diyan kung anu-ano sinasabi nila," said Romualdez.

"Buhay na ng tao, you know, parang it's just unconscionable me, we're all Christians but I can tell you they'll all burn in hell when they start doing these things because we're talking the life or the lives of people and the lifeline of the country."

He assured the public that the Philippine government is doing its best to acquire the best possible vaccine for COVID-19 in the United States.

The Philippine Embassy in Washington, DC is expected to recommend to officials in Manila a COVID-19 testing kit developed by the company Ellume, which is said to be very effective and can give results in 15 minutes.

"You can test your own in your home, and you can get the results in 15 minutes and it is about 90 to 95 percent effective and we're going to recommend that this be used by the government," said Romualdez.

The testing kit has been authorized for emergency use by the US Food and Drug Administration. -- BAP/KBK, GMA News