{"id":277980,"date":"2020-12-08T04:12:23","date_gmt":"2020-12-08T09:12:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=277980"},"modified":"2020-12-08T04:12:23","modified_gmt":"2020-12-08T09:12:23","slug":"duterte-confident-no-kickbacks-in-purchase-of-covid-19-vaccines-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/12\/08\/duterte-confident-no-kickbacks-in-purchase-of-covid-19-vaccines-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Duterte confident no kickbacks in purchase of Covid-19 vaccines"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Last month, Duterte said he wanted Galvez to be the sole person in charge of the purchase of vaccines. (File: KARL NORMAN ALONZO\/ PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 The purchase of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) vaccines for Filipinos will be free from corruption with vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. in charge, President Rodrigo Duterte assured Monday night.<\/p>\n

Duterte said he had full faith and confidence that Galvez will make sure that there won\u2019t be any kickbacks involved in the process of acquiring vaccines.<\/p>\n

\u2018Yang<\/em>\u00a0vaccine\u00a0na \u2018yan<\/em>\u00a0(That vaccine), it\u2019s worth billions. They said we would need about PHP73 billion to vaccinize the population.\u00a0\u2018Yan teritoryo\u2018yan ni<\/em>\u00a0Gen. Galvez (That\u2019s Gen. Galvez\u2019s territory). I have full faith and confidence\u00a0na walang<\/em>\u00a0kickback-kickback\u00a0\u2018yan wala lahat. Walang makikialam. Siya lang ang kakalap ng<\/em>\u00a0vaccine\u00a0para sa ating mga kababayan<\/em>\u00a0(Nobody will interfere. He\u2019ll be the only one importing vaccines for our citizens),\u201d he said in a taped public address.<\/p>\n

Last month, Duterte said he wanted Galvez to be the sole person in charge of the purchase of vaccines.<\/p>\n

He turned down the idea of having to form a committee in charge of vaccine procurement as it might lead to further delays.<\/p>\n

Malaca\u00f1ang earlier said the national government\u2019s vaccination drive against Covid-19 will not be tainted with politics.<\/p>\n

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said the President made it clear that all priority groups would be provided with free doses of the potential vaccine, regardless of whether they are part of the opposition or critics.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Duterte also defended Health Secretary Francisco Duque III against corruption allegations anew, saying he was sure that the latter never received money.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has served government faithfully for four administrations. You just do not you know,\u00a0sabihin mo na, wala man akong nakita na nagtanggap ng pera. Wala talaga<\/em>\u00a0(you just say, I didn\u2019t see that he received money. There\u2019s really nothing). Either\u00a0sa<\/em>\u00a0(from) intelligence,\u00a0sa<\/em>\u00a0military,\u00a0sa<\/em>\u00a0police\u00a0o sa<\/em>\u00a0civilian. I have not heard Secretary Duque receiving money,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Despite calls for Duque\u2019s resignation, Duterte has repeatedly said he will continue to vouch for the integrity of Duque and his other Cabinet members.<\/p>\n

Duterte said he would step down as President if anyone could prove that he or any of his Cabinet members stole from government.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaraming haka-haka diyan na kaming mga<\/em>\u00a0Cabinet members,\u00a0ako tumatanggap ng pera saan<\/em>\u00a0(There are suspicions that my Cabinet members and I received money). Look, I give you this guarantee.\u00a0Magdala ka lang ng tao at sabihin mo nagbigay siya ng piso sa amin, mag<\/em>-resign\u00a0ako bukas<\/em>. Just one person, one affidavit (Just bring a person and tell him to say that he gave even one peso to us, I\u2019ll resign tomorrow). You just bring him to him or bring him before the public an announcement, and if true, I will tender my resignation as President of this Republic,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said as far as he is concerned, his Cabinet members were \u201call honest\u201d otherwise he would ask them to resign immediately.<\/p>\n

Duterte said there is no use of governing a country when people no longer believe in their leaders.<\/p>\n

\u201cKasi kung hindi na maniwala ang tao, wala na<\/em>\u00a0(Because if people don\u2019t believe you, that\u2019s the end). You are better off just enjoying your retirement. It\u2019s a lifetime journey of hardship and everything both for the military and the\u00a0mga<\/em>\u00a0civilian\u00a0dito<\/em>\u00a0(here),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 The purchase of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) vaccines for Filipinos will be free from corruption with vaccine czar Carlito …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":277197,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-277980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-azer-parrocha"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277980","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=277980"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277980\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":277993,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277980\/revisions\/277993"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/277197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=277980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}