Galvez apologized to senators as the Senate inquiry on the COVID-19 vaccination program resumed.
Vaccine czar Sec. Carlito Galvez Jr. on Friday apologized to senators for his remarks about the Senate inquiry on the government’s COVID-19 vaccination program.
This, as the Senate Committee of Whole continued its public hearing on the national COVID-19 vaccination program.
“I would like to make (a) public address that, for whatever statement that I have made, I would make an apology if I have hurt your feelings,” Galvez said.
Galvez’s apology came after Senator Panfilo Lacson had earlier called out Galvez for accusing members of the Senate of “demonizing” COVID-19 vaccine developers and “hurting” the Philippine government’s negotiations with COVID-19 vaccine suppliers and makers as they pressed for clarification about their negotiations with Sinovac Biotech.
Also, senators took exception to Galvez’s remarks in a televised interview that the amounts of vaccines they had been citing were “wrong” when the figures were sourced from the Department of Health (DOH).
According to Lacson, Galvez had apologized to him during their private meeting last Wednesday along with Senate President Vicente Sotto III, Senator Ronald dela Rosa, and Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong.
“He promised to be more careful in issuing statements,” Lacson on Thursday said.
READ ALSO: Sinopharm COVID-19 Vaccine “Too Expensive”, “Very Problematic” — Galvez
Galvez, who was also the chief implementer of the National Task Force Against COVID-19, said in the Senate hearing that he respected the Senate’s oversight functions in inquiring about the Philippine government’s COVID-19 vaccination program.
According to him, he appreciated the role of the Senate in helping them to explain the complicated process involved in negotiating and procuring vaccines for the Philippines to the Filipino people and to put clarity in their national COVID-19 vaccination road map.
“We also thank and recognize their different recommendations to gaps that they have seen in our roadmap. We recognize and respect the oversight functions of the Senate given that we all share the same objective which is to ensure that the Filipino people will have access to safe, effective vaccines,” Galvez said.
Senate President Sotto also maintained that they had nothing but good intentions in conducting public hearings because they all wanted to put an end to the coronavirus pandemic as soon as possible.
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