MANILA, Philippines — Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Gen. Debold Sinas yesterday denied he got inoculated with COVID-19 vaccine made by Chinese firm Sinopharm as alleged by columnist and former special envoy to China Ramon Tulfo.
Sinas said he would have not have contracted COVID-19 if Tulfo’s claim were true.
“Not true. If I had the vaccine, I shouldn’t have not been infected with COVID-19 today,” he said in a text message to The STAR.
In his column, Tulfo claimed he and Sinas were injected with smuggled Sinopharm vaccines in November last year.
“Sinas will survive because he got injected with the Sinopharm vaccine along with this columnist,” Tulfo wrote, adding that Sinas’ security escorts also got the jabs.
Sinas is under a week-long quarantine at the PNP’s isolation center in Camp Crame together with 54 other COVID-19 patients.
A security official who spoke on condition of anonymity said the police chief remains asymptomatic, which means he has not manifested any symptom of the virus, and is doing his daily exercise routines to keep himself in shape.
Meanwhile, two PNP members who are from Sinas’ office have also tested positive for COVID-19. Authorities did not give details about the two. It is also unclear if they had come into close contact with Sinas at the time he discovered he got the virus.