MANILA – The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines injected on President Rodrigo Duterte’s security group were smuggled, claimed Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana.
According to the minister, the inoculation of members of the Presidential Security Group (PSG) was not authorized. He also doesn’t know who donated the vaccines, which were reportedly developed by Chinese drug maker Sinopharm.
“Yes, it’s smuggled. Kasi hindi authorized na pumasok dito. Only the government can authorize that through the FDA (Food and Drug Administration),” Lorenzana said.
“Basta alam namin noon, ang rumors na kumakalat ay nagpabakuna na ‘yung PSG. Who authorized it, hindi naman kami nagtanong,” he added. “Ngayon pa lang lumalabas ‘yung facts na ‘yan ay hindi pa pala authorized na vaccine sa Pilipinas.”
PSG chief Jesus Durante, for his part, said the vaccination on Duterte’s security group started in September. President Duterte was not informed about it until after the PSG men were vaccinated.
“It started actually September and the last batch October. All of the personnel inoculated so far are doing good. No side effects whatsoever,” Durante said in an interview with ABS-CBN News Channel.
“We didn’t ask permission (from President Duterte). We just informed him about it after all the close-in personnel were vaccinated. He was surprised,” he added.
Durante also refused to disclose how many PSG personnel were inoculated, but said the men are always with the President. He also did not confirm nor deny if he received the vaccine.
“We are soldiers so we have to take risks just to accomplish our mission. The bottomline here is we have to accomplish our mission at all costs,” the PSG commander said.
“We vaccinated ourselves, it’s so easy. It is within our compound, within our command. PSG alone vaccinated ourselves. Nobody from the outside was involved,” Durante added./PN
