MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Risa Hontiveros questioned yesterday the move of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to issue a “compassionate use” permit for the Presidential Security Group (PSG) to bring into the country 10,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines made by Chinese government-owned pharmaceutical Sinopharm.
Hontiveros said even if the FDA issued the compassionate special permit (CSP), she still found it suspicious that the PSG has a separate vaccination program outside of what the National Task Force is rolling out for the general public.
“This should not be ignored,” Hontiveros said in a statement. “It’s been more than a month since the news came out of the illegal vaccination of PSG personnel, but questions remain in the minds of many.”
“There is no justifiable explanation for why they are keeping this a mystery,” she said.
She said she saw no point in granting such a special license for Sinopharm vaccines when there are already two other serums given emergency use authorization by the FDA.
There should be no “fast lane” for the PSG when no special treatment is being given to healthcare workers, who sacrificed the most during the pandemic, Hontiveros said.
She also said the PSG can wait for the coming vaccines that Malacañang announced was arriving in two weeks.
Probe continues
Despite being granted the CSP, the PSG is not yet cleared of liability for the unauthorized inoculation that it conducted last year.
FDA director general Eric Domingo said this yesterday, as he gave assurance that the agency’s investigation will continue.
“That’s still ongoing. The CSP has nothing to do with it. The CSP is for future use, it’s a forward permit,” he told reporters.
He noted if the vaccines have been used in previous inoculations by the PSG, “that is not covered by CSP.”
Currently, the FDA is investigating the vaccination activities of the PSG in September 2020, wherein some members were given smuggled COVID-19 vaccines.
PSG head Brig. Gen. Jesus Dureza admitted earlier that they used donated unnamed vaccines from China.
Domingo added it was the PSG Hospital that filed the application for CSP last Jan. 18 for Sinopharm vaccines that will be donated to the soldiers.
He said the CSP covers “one-time importation” of 10,000 doses of the vaccines, half of these will be for PSG members while the other half are for their “contacts.”
“Their justification is that they are protecting the President and as part of personal security of the president, they cannot observe social distancing protocols,” he maintained.
Domingo added they approved the application also because the “health of the President is a national issue.”
“We don’t want him getting sick and, at the same time, we don’t want those around him getting sick also,” he said. – Sheila Crisostomo