IT’S the turn of pharmaceutical companies producing Covid vaccines, including Sinovac, to face Senate probers Friday for the third Committee of the Whole (COW) hearing on the Duterte government’s vaccine roadmap.
The Office of Senate President Vicente Sotto III, who chairs the all-senators COW inquiry, confirmed that apart from vaccine czar Carlito Galvez and Health Secretary Francisco Duque, formal invitations were sent to Cabinet members sitting in the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF), as well as officers of Sinovac Biotech Ltd., Zuellig Pharma Philippines, Pfizer and Unilab. Among others, Senate probers were set to verify claims that Malacañang officials were reportedly keen to close a deal with Sinovac, among other suppliers.
Also invited to testify were officials of MKG Universal Drugs Trading Corp., which said it is an exclusive distributor here of China’s state-owned Sinopharm. At the same time, Senate probers are expected to raise questions on the efficacy, pricing and side effects of the Chinese-made vaccines.
No ugly scenes
Meanwhile, the third Committee of the Whole hearing was not expected to result in acrimonious debates between the Executive officials and lawmakers, according to Sen. Panfilo Lacson, given the effort taken by Secretary Galvez to clear the air with him, Senate President Sotto and Senator Ronald dela Rosa in a meeting Wednesday night.
“Secretary Galvez’s briefing clarified a lot of issues,” Lacson told Senate reporters via Viber.
Lacson recalled receiving a message from Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong relaying Galvez’s request for “a meeting to apologize personally for the things he mentioned about me in his presentation during the T3 Zoom meeting last week—which I mentioned in my manifestation during the Senate Committee of the Whole hearing last January 5.”
The senator said Galvez’s Wednesday briefing “clarified a lot of issues and concerns raised by the senators that have remained unresolved until last night.”
In turn, Lacson said: “We advised him [Galvez] to explain in tomorrow’s hearing the same way that he did last night, without violating the terms of the agreement with the vaccine suppliers.” On their part, the senator reported that “we committed to honor and respect those terms so as not to put in jeopardy the deliveries of the vaccines that he said will start within the first quarter of this year.”
“I accepted his apology. He promised to be more careful in issuing statements,” Lacson said, adding: “We were shown the documents. And we have no doubt about Secretary Galvez’s integrity and his sincerity to accomplish his task.”
Moreover, Lacson advised Galvez to “mind his back, front, left and right sides,” adding, “He [Galvez] may have the best of intentions but there may be people pushing him out front to do the talking and explaining to take advantage of his credibility while pursuing their own interests,” the senator said. “He [Galvez] assured us that he will make it very hard for those people to even have an opening for that opportunity.”
Lacson likewise affirmed that “we share the same goal—to ensure our people are vaccinated against Covid-19, with no room for overpricing and other irregularities,” adding that “the Executive and Legislative departments must work together in this regard.”
Earlier, Duterte said he had advised officials like Duque and Galvez to continue heeding Senate invitations and be as transparent as possible, but to walk out in case of “abusive behavior” by senators who may politicize the vaccine issue.
Image credits: Joseph Vidal/Senate PRIB via AP