Malacañang defends appointment of ex-general Galvez as vaccine czar
MANILA, Philippines — Malacañang defended Tuesday President Rodrigo Duterte’s appointment of presidential peace adviser Carlito Galvez, the former chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, as coronavirus vaccine czar amid criticism that someone with a medical background should have been chosen instead.
Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said the distribution of the vaccines is more of a logistical problem than a medical one, stressing that the testing and approval of the vaccine would still be handled by medical experts.
“The vaccine operation will entail logistics. We really need someone who has managerial skills and is accustomed to these management processes,” Roque said partly in Filipino during his regular press briefing.
Galvez said that as coronavirus vaccine czar, he will be a “milestone keeper,” “integrator” and “synchronizer” of all agencies involved in the distribution of the vaccine.
He said that it is better to have one person to perform these tasks instead of the Department of Health or the Department of Science and Technology, as their main task of ensuring the safety and efficacy of vaccines may get “diluted.”
He also assured that he will still be following the policies set by the DOH.
“All throughout these stages, our primary response agency is still the DOH,” Galvez said. “My boss is still the DOH secretary, considering that he is the chairman of the Inter-agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases. Whatever his policy is on the vaccine will be implemented by me.”
In a statement, the DOH expressed support for Galvez in his appointment as vaccine czar.
“We look forward to working closely with him in the rollout of a safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine and we will jointly ensure that it is made accessible to all Filipinos,” the DOH said.
Vaccine roadmap
Galvez unveiled Tuesday his four-phased roadmap for the distribution of the vaccine, which would be presented to Duterte for his approval by this week.
The roadmap is hinged on the assumption that a vaccine would be available for wide distribution by the first quarter of 2021 — something which pharmaceutical companies said is possible, but unlikely.
The execution and implementation phase of the vaccine roadmap is scheduled for the first quarter of 2021 and will last until 2022.
The assessment, evaluation and monitoring of the vaccine will be continuous from the last quarter of this year until 2022.
The planning phase would last from this quarter until the second quarter of 2021, while the preparation phase would last until the third quarter of next year.
Some of the “critical” events leading to the potential procurement of a coronavirus vaccine in the first quarter of 2021 are the organization of the National Task Force on COVID-19 Vaccination and a vaccine panel of experts, and the analysis and selection of a vaccine to be bought. — with a report from Gaea Katreena Cabico
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