A former government adviser has fired back at Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo, telling him to stop blaming others for the government's supposed lapses related to the pandemic response and vaccination program.
(Photo from Tony Leachon's Facebook page / FILE PHOTO / MANILA BULLETIN)
In a series of tweets, Dr. Anthony Leachon explained he merely pointed out the "cracks" in the government's vaccination plan, including the lack of transparency in the prices of the vaccines secured by authorities.
Panelo had earlier slammed Leachon for allegedly adding fuel to the fire instead of easing public concerns about the government's vaccine procurement efforts. The Palace official was not pleased with the criticisms raised by Leachon, who briefly served as adviser of the national task force on addressing the COVID-19 pandemic last year.
“@salvadorpanelo Stop blaming other people for your mistakes. Until you are ready to admit that you are infallible, you are vulnerable to fail. We have the longest lockdown on earth and we have not finalized our vaccination plan, procurement, pricing and execution process,” Leachon tweeted.
"It's too easy to criticize a man when he's out of favor, and to make him shoulder the blame for everybody else's mistakes," he added.
Leachon maintained that the public deserves to know the government's plan and get urgent results.
"We have seen cracks at the vaccination plan, lack of transparency on the pricing and turtle paced procurement of vaccines. We deserve to know," he said.
"People are waiting for urgent results. The day people stop bringing you their unending COVID problems or stop criticizing a failed pandemic response or vaccination plan is the day you have stopped leading them. And both would mean a failure of leadership," he added.
Leachon, in another tweet, presented the "facts" about the country's situation, including the surge of COVID cases and high case fatality rate despite having the "longest lockdown.”
"Let’s call a spade a spade," Leachon said. "We have a new UK strain. We have a delayed vaccination program," he added.
The government is currently confronted with unprecedented challenges related to the pandemic, including the detection of more cases of the United Kingdom variant of the coronavirus.
Manila also started to secure vaccine supplies from suppliers abroad, with the initial shipment expected to arrive next month. Some groups however have raised safety and efficacy concerns as well as price of certain vaccines secured by the government.
At present, the prices of the vaccines have been withheld by authorities due to a confidentiality deal with the manufacturers.