Privilege Speech of Sen. Francis "Kiko" Pangilinan

Good afternoon Mr. President, I rise on a matter of personal and collective privilege.

In last Wednesday's session here in the Senate, during the interpellations on the bicameral conference committee report on the 2021 National Budget, Senators Ralph Recto, Frank Drilon, and Dick Gordon, among others, asked a series of pointed questions on the 72.5-billion-peso budget allocation for the purchase of Covid vaccines and the government's rollout plan.

Questions such as the following: How safe are the vaccines? How much funds will be needed to vaccinate 70 percent of the population as the World Health Organization recommendation to address herd immunity? Will we need a supplemental budget to fund this? Is there a timetable to complete the vaccination of 70 percent of the population? How many will be vaccinated with the 2021 budget of 72.5 billion pesos? When will the vaccination begin? How will it be rolled out? Who will be vaccinated first? How will they be vaccinated and by whom? Do we have the logistical capacity to ensure an effective delivery of the vaccines to the grassroots? What is the game plan?

These were the questions raised then, and in fairness to Senator Angara, our chairperson on the Committee on Finance, and through no fault his own, quite a number of critical questions have remain unanswered. Hence this privilege speech.

The fact that senators are pretty much in the dark as to the game plan does not bode well for transparency and accountability in the vaccine rollout. The fact that Senators Recto, Drilon, and Gordon -- three of our more diligent, vastly experienced, and knowledgeable senators -- are unaware of many of the aspects of the rollout effort, what more the rest of the public?

Transparency in the process is key if there is to be public trust in a rollout and without the public's trust, a program of this magnitude will not succeed.

Today we filed Senate Resolution 594 precisely to ask for this Committee of the Whole hearing on the subject considering that it covers a complex number of various issues such as funding, country-to-country negotiations that may involve matters affecting diplomatic relations, logistical support, private sector mobilization, including digital infrastructure and sophisticated transport systems, and public health concerns, among others.

The country needs clear and concrete action steps and deliverables in a vaccination program that our citizens can trust and believe in. It is incumbent upon government to provide this.

A massive rollout of this vaccination program also needs an effective information and dissemination campaign to make it work especially since a recent survey by the SWS held last September 2020 revealed that 31 percent of those surveyed are unwilling to be vaccinated.

We need specific deliverables.

The other day, for example, US President-elect Biden laid down a strategic deliverable of vaccinating 100 million of his citizens in his first 100 days in office. On the other hand, Japan, it was reported the other day, will be purchasing 10,500 deep freezers for its Covid vaccine requirements. Canada has already negotiated with several pharmaceutical companies and is in the process of locking in over 100 million vaccines, enough to vaccinate their citizens five times over. In the meantime, the UK, the US, Canada, and Israel have begun or will begin mass vaccination this December 2020.

These are clear, concrete action steps taken by these countries to protect their citizens. We need to step up and likewise provide, as one of our colleagues mentioned, Senator Gordon, and described as our game plan for the Philippines.

All throughout the last nine months of the COVID, various lockdowns and quarantines, the Senate, under the able leadership of our Senate President, has been trying to help put rhyme and reason, as well as provide leadership and direction to the government's pandemic response.

In the last nine months, the Senate has set aside partisan politics, used its collective wisdom and experience to help chart the course of the nation as we ventured through treacherous, unfamiliar pandemic waters.

For a clearer and larger allocation for assistance to distressed sectors and economic stimulus, for example, the Senate proposed 275 billion pesos for Bayanihan 2.

Many of us, including Senator Recto, wanted even more. This however unfortunately was thumbed down by the country's economic team.

In April of 2020 the Senate in its desire to strengthen the country's less-than-sterling response to the Covid crisis in a resolution signed by 15 senators sought the resignation of Health Secretary Duque. This was left unheeded by the Executive branch. It is not farfetched to say that perhaps the contraction of our economy would not have been as severe, less people would have gone hungry, more jobs could have been saved, and most importantly more lives could have been saved had the Senate had its way with these two Senate initiatives.

Still, to be fair, a number of those proposed interventions were embraced by the Executive branch. For instance, the exposure of overpriced testing kits by Senator Drilon in the Senate Committee of the Whole hearings led to the drop in the cost of PhilHealth-administered testing from 8,000 pesos to around 3,000-plus pesos.

The senators' call for the use of Philippine-made Covid test kits and PPEs to stimulate the local economy, although belatedly, led to an estimated 26-percent further drop in prices of testing kits in the market.

The Senate's PhilHealth investigation led by the Senate President and Senator Ping Lacson on the 15-billion-peso corruption scandal led to the removal of the top leadership and its revamp.

The Senate's removal of what was deemed as confiscatory provisions in Bayanihan 1 assuaged the fears of the general public of potential abuse in executive powers, including the limiting the period of the emergency powers to three months, providing for a weekly reportorial requirement as to the use of public funds for Covid-related interventions, and specifying the grant of ayuda to those affected by the lockdowns, among other Senate proposals, provided for greater responsiveness, transparency, and accountability in the government's overall Covid response.

On a personal note, today, December 14, is the 116th day from the death of Jovan Balgos. He was a member of my staff in the Senate, in the Executive department for 16 years. He died due to Covid-19. He is one of the 8,733 Filipinos who have definitively died of the disease as of December 13. Two other brothers of Jovan also died within a three-week period last July. And although his two siblings were not tested, they exhibited Covid symptoms prior to their deaths and most likely died of the disease as well. Thirteen other members of his household also experienced Covid symptoms but thankfully all recovered.

The number of Covid deaths and Covid cases, we have been told, is definitely more than that which has been tallied since many of these deaths and illnesses have gone unreported. Either the infected don't get sick or the sick don't see a doctor, and are therefore not tested. Aside from the inconvenience and the stigma of getting these tests, tests are also not free.

Last week, as we watched the first British national receive the Covid vaccine, we could only pin our fervent hope that Filipinos will have the same access to safe, effective, and affordable doses needed to end the spread of the disease and the pandemic -- so that our lives and that of our children will normalize and we can shake hands and hug our loved ones once again. As the millennials would say: Sana all! Sana magkaroon ng pagkakataon ang lahat ng Pilipino sa ligtas, epektibo at abot-kayang bakuna laban sa Covid-19.

Vaccines are preventive measures. But while we want to ensure our vaccine roll-out program is ready, we must also guard against over-reliance on vaccines. Tandaan natin na ang bakuna ay hindi kagyat na makapagtatapos sa pandemyang kinakaharap natin.

Kaya naman marapat pa rin nating bantayan: Ano na ang case doubling rate ng Covid-19 sa buong bansa at sa ating mga probinsya? Kailan magiging libre, or di kaya abot-kaya, ang testing? Ilang bahagi ng ating populasyon ang nagsusuot ng mask? Kailan maaring gawin libre or abot-kaya ang face mask para sa lahat, lalo na sa mga bata at senior citizens?

The Covid-19 pandemic has not only exposed the gross inadequacy and inequality in the country's health care service, it exacerbated it. Hindi na nga pantay-pantay ang uri at kalidad ng serbisyong pangkalusugan bago ang Covid-19, mas lalo pang pinalala ng pandemya ang mga kakulangan at di-pagkakapantay-pantay na ito.

Kaya naman dapat natin patuloy na tutukan at huwag bibitiwan ng Senado ang pagbabantay at pag-alalay sa gobyerno sa pagsugpo sa Covid-19 at sa mass vaccination program nito.

Ending this pandemic will require people's trust. Trust that the vaccines that will be injected to them are safe and effective. Trust that the process for acquiring, delivering, and administering these vaccines are free from corruption. And trust that the prioritization of vulnerable groups is fair and free of any other consideration apart from the public good.

Before I end, allow me rto eiterate the questions that need to be answered: Which vaccines are we choosing to give our people? What will be our basis for selecting the vaccines? How many Filipinos can be inoculated? Who will administer the shots? How many will be needed to administer the shots? Who will train them? How will they be trained? Who will prepare the list of beneficiaries? How fool-proof is this list? How are we going to guard against the possible proliferation of fake vaccines that might victimize the vulnerable? How many deep freezers do we need? Are we stockpiling on syringes, needles, and gloves? Do we need alcohol swabs in glass vials? How are we going to distribute the vaccine?

Let the Senate, through its Committee of the Whole, once again do its part in building public trust by openly discussing, testing, and improving our government's plans to beat Covid-19 as soon as humanly possible.

Today we read in the papers that the World Health Organization announcing the terrible, painful truth that there has been a 60 percent increase in deaths worldwide due to Covid only in the last 6 weeks.

The dying must stop. The spread of the illness must once and for all be arrested and contained. We must as Filipinos and as human beings put our heads together, pool our resources and our skills, public sector and private sector, as a people, and use to our utmost our abilities to solve complex problems to defeat this unthinking, uncritical virus in our midst. Lessons from other countries and jurisdictions such as New Zealand, Thailand, Vietnam, South Korea, Australia, Taiwan reveal that this virus can be managed, that it can be done and has been done.

Finally, may we respectfully request and urge the body to create this committee of the whole and adopt Resolution 594.

Thank you, Mr. President and colleagues at the Senate. May God bless the Philippines and keep our kababayan safe. Maraming salamat.