MANILA — President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday lashed out at Vice President Leni Robredo anew for criticizing the administration’s COVID-19 vaccination program, which has started using Sinovac doses even without the positive recommendation of the Health Technology Assessment Council (HTAC).
Duterte appeared irate over Robredo’s sentiments as she sought to provide a safer and more efficacious COVID-19 vaccine to healthcare workers, echoing the appeals recently made by medical groups.
Rather than dwelling on the merits of the suggestion, Duterte told Robredo to die.
“Iyan ang mahirap sa iyo eh, you want to be relevant,” said Duterte in his public address. “Sometimes, you make an idiotic stance. Iyong mga ganoong ‘They deserve the best.’ Anak ka ng. Bakit ako? I would give them the worst? Mamatay ka na. Hindi ko iwanan ‘yong mga frontliners and you do not need to really be redundant about it.”
Robredo, in her weekly radio program last Sunday, urged government officials to ensure that the Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine goes through stringent regulatory processes before the rollout to ensure safety.
Mass inoculation, however, began yesterday in several hospitals even when the HTAC has yet to release a positive recommendation on the donated dose from China.
HTAC provides a separate analysis of the vaccines given emergency use permit by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) using peer-reviewed articles in medical journals. Both Pfizer-BioNTech and AstraZeneca already got positive recommendations from the HTAC.
Robredo said seeking HTAC’s opinion would help ease people’s fears about Sinovac’s COVID-19 vaccine, especially at a time when various government bodies have issued rather conflicting feedbacks.
But Duterte easily dismissed the idea, choosing to castigate Robredo instead. He reiterated his previous position that the country cannot afford to wait for other brands because of the limited supply in the global chain.
“Kung gusto mo talaga para mahinto ka, kunin mo ‘yong basket mo, mamalengke ka doon sa labas ng bakuna. Bigyan kita pera para kung may mabili ka, bilhin mo na kaagad at umuwi ka dito sa Pilipinas, ibigay mo doon sa mga doktor,” said Duterte.
Duterte’s tirades against Robredo in his public addresses are not new as he usually resorts to hurling insults and sexist remarks against his most formidable critic.
Sen. Francis Pangilinan, one of Robredo’s allies in the Liberal Party, defended her from Duterte’s latest rants, urging the administration to focus its “eye on the ball.”
“COVID ang problema, hindi si VP Leni,” posted Pangilinan on Twitter. “Siya nga ang walang pagod sa kakatulong at paghanap ng solusyon sa pesteng COVID. Tularan na lang kaya si VP.” (News5)
