President Rodrigo Duterte and Vice President Maria Leonor “Leni” Robredo may soon star in an infomercial urging Filipinos to get Covid-19 jabs.
The camps of the two highest government officials on Friday expressed openness to the idea, which was floated by Sen. Joel Villanueva.
Palace spokesman Harry Roque said Duterte would be willing to appear in the infomercial, but only if Robredo would attest to the efficacy of the Chinese vaccines.
Roque claimed Robredo had “questioned” the use of Chinese vaccines in the government’s inoculation program and “politicized” the doses donated by China, connecting them to the West Philippine Sea issue.
“Kasi ang alam ko po sa mga unang panahon e kinukuwestiyon pa nga ni VP Leni iyong paggamit ng Chinese vaccine. So parang I cannot see na i-endorso niya pare-pareho. Sana po, kung masasabi niya iyan, e matuloy iyon, pero alam po ninyo ginawa talagang pulitika pati itong bakuna,” Roque said in a Dobol B interview.
“So sa atin po, sana po masabi mismo ni vice president iyon, simulan po natin doon at kung masasabi niya na pantay-pantay talaga lahat ng bakuna at isasantabi niya iyong pulitika, e pag-aaralan natin iyan, bakit naman hindi. Pero ang tanong: masasabi ba iyon?” he added.
Robredo’s spokesman Barry Gutierrez said Robredo would also be open to the idea.
“Kung may magri-reach out sa kanya at magsasama sila ni Pangulong Duterte para magkaroon ng infomercial para lalong ma-enganyo ang ating mga kababayan na magpabakuna sa lalong madaling panahon, e bukas siya d’yan,” Gutierrez said in another Dobol B interview.
Just this week, Robredo was inoculated with her first AstraZeneca shot.
Duterte was earlier injected with the unregistered Sinopharm vaccine from China.
About 3.3 million vaccine doses have been deployed in the Philippines. John Ezekiel J. Hirro