MANILA – President Rodrigo Duterte has urged vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. to “stand up and leave” if the senators will be “verbally abusive” in the resumption of the Senate inquiry on the government’s coronavirus vaccination program.
According to Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque, Duterte’s advice came after Galvez asked the country’s chief executive on skipping the Senate hearing to resume negotiations with the vaccine developers.
“In fairness to the President, his answer was, ‘No, go to the Senate, continue answering questions, continue the way that you have been answering. And if they become abusive to you verbally, just stand up and leave. If they cite you in contempt, I will come and fetch you,’” Roque said in an interview over CNN Philippines’ The Source.
According to Roque, President Duterte lamented the “war-like” demeanor of senators during hearings on the government’s vaccination program.
“He (Duterte) could not understand why the demeanor of some senators was apparently bellicose-like, they were war-like. Of course, there was like already an attitude as if there was corruption going on when there was fact-finding, in fact,” Roque said.
“The President thought, despite the separation of powers, despite the power of oversight, it does not give the senators the license to be abusive,” the Palace spokesperson added.
On Tuesday, President Duterte tasked Galvez to disclose the government’s vaccine deals to Senate President Vicente Sotto III amid the confidentiality agreement with pharmaceutical companies.
During the Senate’s previous hearings, senators have pressed executive officials to reveal the procurement prices of coronavirus vaccines, but those in charge invoked the said non-disclosure agreement.
Sen. Panfilo Lacson then suspected an attempt to overprice the vaccine produced by Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac despite Galvez’s insistence that the country was given a special price./PN
