Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. on Friday insisted that the Philippines was not delayed in the procurement of COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) vaccines despite the admission made by vaccine czar Carlito Galvez that the government “acted a little late.”
“Not true. We were among the first to react in that (vaccine) and other anti-Covid aspects. But feared mistakes too much. Natural,” Locsin said in a tweet.
When confronted by a netizen about Galvez’s direct admission, Locsin maintained that the cabinet members hit their targets when all of them were called by President Duterte to “get going.”
“No, we were not. Duterte called the Cabinet and each of us to get going; I did, and so did Del (Defense Sec. Lorenzana), (Finance Sec. Carlos) Dominguez, everybody whose department was involved in the Covid fight. All of us hit our targets… and then… Es la vida loca (the crazy life),” he said.
Even former Commission on Elections Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal called Locsin’s attention by quoting exactly what Galvez said in a media interview, to which Locsin replied, “I was being nice about ball dropping.”
In a post on Twitter, Larrazabal argued that some might have acted fast “but others didn’t, and because of their delay, inaction or ball-dropping, we’re late.”
In December last year, the foreign secretary pinpointed Health Secretary Francisco Duque III as the one who had “dropped the ball” in the country’s COVID-19 vaccine negotiations with American drug maker Pfizer.
He, however, said the public “can’t keep on blaming,” adding he is more interested in results moving forward.
“I’m not interested in recriminations, I’m interested in results,” Locsin… We can’t keep blaming,” he said.