MANILA, Philippines — The inoculation of President Rodrigo Duterte's security detail with contraband vaccines is a continued consequence of the lack of a coherent and equitable game plan to control and manage the pandemic, Sen. Francis Pangilinan said Thursday.
This comes as Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana acknowledged to ABS-CBN, during a ceremony held in commemoration of Rizal Day, that the COVID-19 vaccines used by the Presidential Security Group were smuggled into the country. He also said that the smuggling was justified since the PSG had good intentions.
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"It is unfortunate that even though there is vaccine czar [Carlito Galvez Jr.] who I believe is capable and should be in charge of the vaccine rollout, officials are still acting individually and have conflicting explanations on legality," Pangilinan said in Filipino.
The Palace and the Department of Health have played down the incident, saying the vaccines were donated and not part of the government's vaccination plan, which places medical frontliners at the top of the list.
"Sabi nga sa social media dapat bumuo sila ng group chat para iisa lang ang direksyon nila (As people have said on social media, [top officials] should form a group chat so that they are in unison)," Pangilinan added.
FDA chief Eric Domingo said the move was done without consulting them or the health department, and even Secretary Francisco Duque III was surprised to find about the development.
Bureau of Customs spokesperson Vincent Maronilla said no communications were made to them that vaccines would be transported inside borders but stopped short of calling them smuggled, citing a lack of details. But, he recognized that if the items were misdeclared, it would be tantamount to technical smuggling — or, as defined by law in the Philippines, importing goods through "fraudulent, falsified or erroneous declarations."
Adding to public confusion, Brig. Gen. Jesus Durante, PSG commander, during an interview with ANC's "Headstart" on Thursday refused to reveal exactly how many members of the president's security detail have been inoculated. He also refused to reveal if he was among those who received the unregulated vaccine.
"We cannot do this individually. The lives of millions of our countrymen are at stake. The livelihoods of millions of our hungry countrymen also depend on economic recovery which depends on the proper implementation of the vaccine rollout nationwide. We can't make mistakes here," Pangilinan further said in Filipino.
The revelation of the PSG's do-it-yourself vaccination effort —and the inconsistent messaging surrounding it — is not the only mess to have caught the government flat-footed as of late. In recent days, the public has watched in bewilderment as agencies of the government struggled to align their messages and policies.
Confusion over travel ban
There was confusion for several hours on Tuesday as presidential spokesman Harry Roque refused to confirm a broader travel ban announced by Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, Labor Secretary Francisco Bello III, and the Manila International Airport Authority, which had issued an advisory to travelers.
Roque late Tuesday afternoon finally confirmed the travel restrictions imposed on some 20 countries which have recorded a new variant of coronavirus which experts fear to be more contagious.
READ: Confusion as Palace contradicts 3 agencies on broader travel ban | After miscommunication, broader travel ban on 20 territories finally sure
Before this, scandal gripped the Department of Health when Duque was accused of "dropping the ball" and missing a chance to acquire badly needed doses of Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine.
Given all this, for Pangilinan, legislative oversight is needed on the government's vaccine rollout plan. He earlier filed Senate Resolution 594 asking the Senate Committee of the Whole to look into the government’s national vaccination program. While no date has been set for the hearings, the senator said they may begin as soon as January 2021.
"Vaccine rollout failure is not an option," he added.
As of this writing, 471,526 Filipinos have contracted coronavirus, 9,126 of whom have died. It has been 290 days since the country was first placed under lockdown and the administration is not expecting the delivery of any vaccine until March 2021.
Moreno seeks accountability over smuggled vaccines
Mayor Isko Moreno, who has been ordering raids on illegal vaccination hubs in Manila City, called on the public not to follow in the PSG's footsteps, condemning the the use of unauthorized doses.
"These things are not allowed. And it should not be emulated, or it should not be copied, by any other agency in the national government, or local government," he told ABS-CBN during the same Rizal Day ceremony attended by Lorenzana on Thursday.
"Honestly, that person should be responsible to himself and the community. He needs to reveal who they are, who is involved, because there is a violation," he said in Filipino, referring to those behind the PSG's covert vaccination effort.
Brig. Gen. Durante has taken "full responsibility" for the unauthorized inoculation of his men, going so far as to claim during the same interview with ANC that the president had no knowledge that the jabs were administered until after the fact.
It was Duterte who told the public on Saturday that members of the military had already been vaccinated.
Every official questioned over the matter has claimed that they do not know who gave the Sinopharm doses to government officials.
Lorenzana has said that that he will not order sanctions against members of the PSG amid the uproar, justifying their actions with what he said were their good intentions. Instead, he said he would no longer allow military officials to receive vaccines which have not been approved by the FDA.
READ: For everyone else: DOH, FDA warn vs use of unauthorized vaccine