Robredo: I haven’t been inoculated yet

MANILA, Philippines — Vice President Leni Robredo said yesterday she has not been inoculated against COVID-19, and called out those spreading falsehoods in social media that she already had her jab.

Robredo made the clarification after a supposed photo of her receiving the vaccine went viral online.

“This is ridiculously funny. Hindi po ako yan (That’s not me),” Robredo said in a post on Facebook.

“I don’t want to dignify this, but there are a lot of people sending me screenshots. If you’re not busy, please report this (to Facebook as fake news),” she said in Filipino.

Earlier, Robredo had expressed willingness to be among the first to be vaccinated to encourage Filipinos to be immunized against COVID-19.

However, she said she understood the government’s priority to inoculate health care workers first.

Sass Rogando Sasot, a known administration supporter, shared the photo Robredo was referring to on her Facebook page. Most comments in the post were critical of the Vice President.

Sasot, however, said the woman in the photo was not Robredo.

The Vice President said she was told the woman in the picture was Flordeliza Grana, a pediatric surgeon at the Amang Rodriguez Memorial Medical Center in Marikina City.

Robredo responds to Duterte’s tirade

Meanwhile, the opposition leader said President Duterte’s latest tirade against her was unpresidential.

Duterte recently said that she is trying to be relevant by egging him to get inoculated with the China-made Sinovac vaccine.

“You seem to have an angel face, but a devilish mind,” he said of Robredo in a televised speech last Monday.

Interviewed in the online program “The Mangahas Interviews” yesterday, Robredo responded: “My first impression was as if the one talking was not a president. Second, he is too peevish.”

She said the President should allow people to make suggestions.

Duterte had opted to chide Robredo, saying: “Now if you really want to do something, get your basket (and) shop for vaccines. I’ll give you money, buy it immediately and return to the Philippines and give it to the doctors.”

But the Vice President said the issue is more than just handing her cash to purchase vaccines. “It’s not as easy as giving me money and I’ll buy,” she said.