Pompeo to try his best on Philippine bid for Pfizer vaccine —Locsin

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will give his best try to help the Philippines get back into the Pfizer vaccine deal after someone "dropped the ball," Department of Foreign Affairs Secretary Teddy Locsin Jr said Saturday. 

In a Twitter post, Secretary Locsin said he had a chat Friday night with Secretary Pompeo who, during the "most serious part" of their conversation, promised to try his best to help  Philippine ambassador to the United States Babe Romualdez with the country's bid for Pfizer's vaccine.

Great phone conversation with Mike Pompeo last night. Lotsa laughs at others. But on the most serious note I asked him to help Babe and I get back even a fraction of the 10 million doses of Pfizer after someone dropped the ball. He’ll give it his best try. Babe’s securing Moderna

— Teddy Locsin Jr. (@teddyboylocsin) December 19, 2020

In his tweet early this week, Secretary Locsin indicated that 10 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines made by Pfizer were supposed to be delivered to the Philippines in January but somebody committed a mistake.

He made the remark on Twitter after a series of tweets supporting the Philippines' purchase of 25 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines from Chinese firm Sinovac.

"That said my thanks just the same to US Sec of State Mike Pompeo we—Babe Romualdez and I—got 10 million doses of Pfizer financed by World Bank and ADB to be shipped thru FEDEX to Clark in January," Locsin said in his tweet last Tuesday.

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III has been criticized for his alleged lapses in processing the deal for the supposed delivery of Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines to the Philippines by January.

But Duque has denied the allegation, saying the country is still on the process of negotiating with Pfizer.

President Rodrigo Duterte, however, has cleared Duque from blame, saying he sees "no major lapse" on the part of the secretary over the missed opportunity to secure 10 million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for the January 2021 target. —LBG, GMA News