With the procurement of the coronavirus vaccine on the line, Vice President Leni Robredo on Wednesday urged the government not to make the same mistake – slow response to curb the spread of COVID-19 in March.
In a webinar hosted by Kaya Natin, which was co-founded by the vice president’s late husband Interior secretary Jesse Robredo, she lamented that the government is again behind in the procurement of the COVID-19 vaccine.
“If 2020 was a lesson to us, if we are quick to the draw, we will be able to respond well,” Robredo said.
“The of the vaccine will make up for the spread of the virus, right? If we are very swift on this , we will be in line for the deliveries,” she said in Filipino.
The Vice President added that it will be easier to regain the confidence of the public that life can go back to normal if the government purchases the vaccines on time. “The longer we wait, that will be more difficult.”
Robredo also said that her office is ready to fill in the gaps in the procurement and distribution of the vaccines.
She reiterated her suggestion of having a priority list of recipients for the inoculation against COVID-19, adding that word has gotten to her office that the government hasn’t readied a list yet.
This is contrary to the claims made by Presidential spokesman Harry Roque that they are ready with the priority list of people that will get the vaccine first.
But Robredo maintained that she doesn’t want to compete with the administration, but her office is ready to “appropriate funds to be able to help.”
Over the past days, the Vice President attended several briefings regarding the vaccines currently available in the market.
“We still have a lot of briefings that are scheduled because we want to understand where we are now as far as the purchase of vaccines is concerned,” Robredo said, who also recently met with the logistics group to discuss the shipment of the vaccines.
She admitted that things “aren’t clear yet for us, we will continue finding ways to get as much information as possible.”