NBI urged to run after vaccine smugglers

MANILA, Philippines — A congressman yesterday called on the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to run after the smugglers of Sinopharm vaccine into the country’s black market.

Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers, chair of the House committee on dangerous drugs, believes that the people behind the entry of unauthorized anti-COVID vaccines should be held liable for violating the country’s laws while fattening their pockets at the expense of the Filipino people.

“The Department of Justice (DOJ) and its investigating arm, the National Bureau of Investigation, should focus their probe on identifying and prosecuting the smuggler and his BOC (Bureau of Customs) cohorts,” he said in a statement.

“If the DOJ and the NBI won’t probe and determine the real circumstances behind the illegal importation of the vaccines, it’s likely that some people earned huge profits and in the process duped both the people and the government,” Barbers declared.

Barbers said the smugglers of the Chinese vaccine, which cost up to $400 or about P20,000, could also be the ones who reportedly “donated” the same to some 300 members of the Presidential Security Group (PSG) who claimed to have inoculated themselves.

He believed that the presence of such vaccine in the black market suggests that the smugglers brought a lot more of it into the country.

Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra has directed NBI chief Eric Distor to probe the unauthorized distribution and administration of the unregistered vaccines for possible violation of Food and Drug Administration (FDA) laws, the Consumer Act, Medical Practice Act and other relevant laws.

The FDA said it has not approved any anti-COVID vaccines for use in the local drug market.

Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana has supported the military’s move to halt its own investigation on the controversial inoculation of COVID-19 vaccine by members of the PSG.

In a statement, Lorenzana said the closure of the investigation of the vaccination of PSG personnel is in compliance with the directive of President Duterte earlier this week.

Lorenzana, who earlier admitted that the inoculation used smuggled and unauthorized vaccines, said this is already a closed case.

“As far as we at the DND and the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) are concerned, this issue is moot and academic and we will not engage in anymore discussion,” the statement posted by the AFP read.

The AFP said its own fact-finding investigation was seen to help the military improve its own rules, regulations and policies.

The Senate, NBI and BOC are pushing their own inquiries despite Duterte’s warning.

Sen. Leila de Lima has called for a Senate investigation into the reported early vaccination of select members of the Cabinet, PSG and AFP using unregistered COVID-19 vaccines.

De Lima filed Senate Resolution No. 603 underscoring the need to ascertain who smuggled the vaccine and who distributed it to select public officials and how they were able to do so outside government regulations.

Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon stressed the urgency to build COVID-19 vaccine confidence following the findings of OCTA Research that only 25 percent of respondents in Metro Manila are willing to be inoculated with an anti-coronavirus vaccine when it becomes available in the country.

Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian is more concerned with how the anti-COVID-19 vaccines were smuggled into the country, but sees nothing wrong with the inoculation of PSG members.

The smuggling of vaccines might affect the confidence level of the public in the government’s vaccination program, he said, especially if the vaccine turns out to be fake. – Romina Cabrera, Cecille Suerte Felipe