Philippine Ambassador to the US Jose Manuel Romualdez
MANILA, Philippines — Even Filipino-American associations and individuals are banding together to hasten the delivery of American-made vaccines to the Philippines by writing to their state congressmen and senators, Philippine Ambassador to the United States Jose Manuel Romualdez said Tuesday.
In an interview with INQUIRER.net’s INQside Look, Romualdez said efforts are in place to have the American vaccines delivered to the Philippines at an earlier date—and even the Filipino-American community is contributing by communicating their concern to the lawmakers.
“I am very pleased to let you know that our Filipino-American association and Filipino-Americans here in the United States, regardless of political color or political beliefs, are now banding together in trying to write to their congressmen and senators in the local communities to be able to [urge] the [US] government to give us this help, this assistance in getting these vaccines earlier because of the critical situation that we have in the Philippines,” Romualdez said.
FILE PHOTO: Vials with a sticker reading, “COVID-19 / Coronavirus vaccine / Injection only” and a medical syringe are seen in front of a displayed Moderna logo in this illustration taken October 31, 2020. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic
“We’re working with them and hopefully we will get some good results in the next couple of days or maybe a week from now,” he added.
Romualdez said that since congressmen have a large Filipino-American community in their respective areas, “they would listen to them.”
“Let’s face it, Filipino-Americans in this country are very much respected. Majority of our people are very hardworking. They are very much appreciated by their communities. We have a lot of frontliners,” Romualdez said.
“All these add up to the kind of influence that we have with the US government if we just band together,” he added.
The Philippine government and the private sector earlier signed a tripartite agreement with the US drug firm Moderna to secure 20 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccines.
Under the tripartite agreement, the Philippine government secured 13 million doses of the Moderna vaccines while the private sector ordered 7 million doses for its workers.
Aside from the 20 million doses already secured, vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. disclosed that the Philippine government has also placed an order for an additional 5 million doses of the Moderna vaccine.
FILE PHOTO: A woman holds a small bottle labeled with a “Coronavirus COVID-19 Vaccine” sticker and a medical syringe in front of displayed Pfizer logo in this illustration taken, October 30, 2020. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/File Photo
The Philippines is likewise expecting the delivery of Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine from the World Health Organization (WHO)-led COVAX facility.
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