MANILA, Philippines — Vice President Leni Robredo on Sunday called for transparency in a probe on the unregulated Sinopharm vaccination of President Rodrigo Duterte's security detail, warning that the incident could stand to hurt efforts for the public to trust the supposed COVID-19 vaccines.
The said inoculation of the Presidential Security Group (PSG) deals another blow on government's vaccination efforts, on top of criticism that it is lagging in the global race to secure doses and its plan to procure 25 million doses of another Chinese-made vaccine facing public scrutiny.
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Malacañang has repeatedly attempted to move on from the issue, despite the justice department opening an investigation along with another by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
In her weekly radio show, Robredo said the incident puts a strain in getting the public to trust the supposed vaccines, along with many queries still unanswered.
"Sana walang cover up, kasi ganoon yung pakiramdam ngayon sa nakikita ko," she said over DZXL. "Ito 'yung ayaw nating mangyari kasi sa panahon ng pandemya, na kailangan 'yung tiwala ng tao sa effectivity ng pagbabakuna, hindi natin kailangan 'yung mga kontrobersyang ganito."
(We hope that there will be no cover up because that's how it is appearing now. This is what we don't want to happen during a pandemic, where we need people's trust in the effectivity of the vaccines. We don't need controversies like this.)
The incident had caught the public's ire as no vaccines had so far been approved by the FDA for inoculation, apart from Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana calling it smuggled but saying it was justified.
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Government is not expecting any vaccine delivery at least by March, and it has not signed any procurement deals with drugmakers yet.
A Social Weather Stations survey in November of last year showed that 66% of adult Filipinos were willing to take a COVID-19 vaccine, while the remaining 31% said they were not.
Vaccination efforts in the country over the past years have been affected in large part due to fears from a botched dengue vaccination program in 2017, despite no established links of deaths resulting from the inoculation of Dengvaxia.
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The country's No. 2 said the move to vaccinate PSG personnel ran counter to the administration's own list of those prioritized to get the vaccines, which puts health workers first in line and state forces in fifth.
"'Yung IATF, sila 'yung nagpahayag nung levels ng prioritization. Agree tayo [na] 'yung number one 'yung health workers," Robredo said. "So 'yung unang tanong bakit hindi 'yun nasunod? Bakit may na-violate na batas [at] hindi sinunod 'yung prioritization?"
(The coronavirus task force had come up with levels of prioritization, and we agree that it should be health workers in the first spot. So the question is, how come they did not follow their own list? Why were there laws violated and the prioritization not observed?)
She added that good intentions — as said by the defense chief — were not a reason to opt for slipping the Sinopharm doses inside the country.
"Kapag mayroon akong sakit puwede ba akong magpasok ng smuggled na gamot? Justified ba 'yun kung may sakit ako?" Robredo said. "'Yung overall message, 'yun 'yung mahirap [kasi] parang sinasabi mo na okay lang pala mag-smuggle ng vaccines."
(If I am sick, does this mean I can smuggle in medicines into the country? Is it justified just because I'm sick? The overall message is, this is difficult because it is like saying it's fine to smuggle vaccines.)
Duterte, who himself had revealed that some were already vaccinated, has yet to comment on the incident. But his chief of security, BGen. Jesus Durante, has admitted that inoculation had been carried out as early as September 2020.
Questions continue to linger over the Sinopharm incident, as officials either say they don't have knowledge of it or blatantly seek for the public to instead just accept what is an obvious disregard for the law.
Sale and distribution of unregulated medicines among other things are prohibited by the country's law on counterfeit drugs, while the customs bureau has said too that those responsible may face smuggling charges.