Dares those questioning vaccine deals to go talk to him
(Eagle News) — President Rodrigo Duterte hit critics of the government whom he said are muddling the government’s vaccine acquisition program with repeated claims of corruption.
Duterte said he is also taking exception to politicians who claimed that they have prevented corruption from happening in the government transactions on the vaccine.
“Again, to the Filipino people, ‘yung gustong maniwala doon sa mga opposition pati ‘yung mga nagpo-porma, eh ‘di doon kayo. Kung maniwala kayo sa amin, eh ‘di dito kayo,” Duterte said in his Talk to the Nation on Monday night, Jan. 25.
“But hindi ‘yan totoo na — I take exception to itong statement that they were able to prevent corruption or an overprice because of their vigilance. No. Far from it actually. You were just muddling up — it’s a muddled — ginugulo lang ninyo,” he said.
-Vaccine deal to be reviewed by Dominguez, Duterte –
The President said that all transactions will still pass the review of Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez. After that, he himself will still review the transaction.
Duterte said that he is sure that there is no corruption or any anomaly in the process as everything will be tediously reviewed.
“Matagal pa ‘yan at dadaan pa ‘yan kay Dominguez and you know how Dominguez is. Tignan mo kung makalusot ‘yan kay Dominguez. Okay ‘yan,” he said.
“And finally, sa akin rin, I will take a look and ask around if it is really a reasonable pricing for us,” he said.
Duterte criticized how lawmakers had tried to pick on vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr., during hearings on the government’s national vaccine program.
“Ang ano ko lang ganito, mayroong iba diyan because wala silang nakuha kay Galvez kay wala man talaga, walang pera, laway pa lang ito lahat, conversation, istorya, mayroon na nagsasabi may corruption o na they were able to obstruct or prevent corruption because of their timely int… Alam mo — mga bulador kayo,” he said.
He dared the senators to go and talk to him about the issue.
“Mag-usap nga tayo, iyang tayo lang. Kung sinong nagsabi niyan, please rise and be brave enough to say that you are the one. I’d like to talk to you, tayo lang dalawa,” the President said.
Duterte stressed that the government will not pay anything during transactions. Galvez had earlier explained that the payment would be directly made to the pharmaceutical company by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) or the World Bank.
“Wala po tayong hinahawakan na pera. Ang pera po ang magbabayad po bangko. Alam po natin ang transaction ng bangko talagang malinis po ‘yan. Kumbaga sa ano, hindi po tayo makaka — makaka ano, magkakaroon ng tinatawag nating corruption because of the World Bank integrity at saka po ‘yung Asian Development Bank,” Galvez told the President.
(Eagle News Service)
