Emotional Galvez thanks Duterte for 'inspirational leadership'
Now in the last three months of President Duterte’s administration, Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. expressed gratitude to the Commander-in-Chief on Tuesday night, Feb. 28, for inspiring his Cabinet members to mount a courageous fight against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.
Galvez, the vaccine czar and chief implementer of the National Task Force (NTF) Against COVId-19), turned emotional after hearing praises from Duterte during the latter’s Talk to the People public address.
After Galvez presented the updates on the national vaccination program, which included the easing of restrictions of Metro Manila and 38 other areas to Alert Level 1 that coincided with the first anniversary of the vaccination program, Duterte told the vaccine czar: “Secretary Galvez, so far so good ka from Day 1.”
“Any superior would be very happy to have you. Ipamana na rin kita (I will let the next administration have you). I could not have chosen better men actually,” Duterte proudly stated.
In response, Galvez could not help but return the kind words to his superior: “Mr. President, ako po sir emotional po ako dahil nagserbisyo lang po ako dahil sa napakabait niyo po na president (Mr. President, I am emotional because I only did my job, you are a very kind president).”
“Kami pong mga gabinete, sumusunod sa inyo dahil ‘yong inspirational leadership niyo po at ‘yong kabaitan niyo sa amin hindi po mapantayan (We, the Cabinet members, follow you because of your inspirational leadership and your kindness to us is unparalleled),” Galvez said as his voice appeared to crack.
During the onset of the pandemic in March 2020, the Duterte administration was heavily criticized for appointing former military men instead of health experts as the leaders of the government task forces that were created to deal with the virus.
Galvez, a retired military general and former Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Philipppines (AFP), was appointed as the chief implementer of the NTF Against COVID-19 and eventually as the vaccine czar.
Aside from him, also designated as the pandemic task force leaders were retired general and Department of National Defense (DND) Secretary Delfin Lorenzana as chairman of the NTF; and retired general and Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Eduardo Ano as vice chairman of NTF, among others.
Duterte will step down from office and end his six-year term as president in June 2022.