NBI to probe entry, use of unregistered vaccines

Lorenzana: PSG vaccines smuggled

MANILA, Philippines — The Presidential Security Group (PSG) will not be spared from the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI)’s probe into the unauthorized distribution and administration of unregistered coronavirus vaccines.

However, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra, who ordered the probe, said yesterday that the NBI would not solely focus on President Duterte’s security personnel.

“This is a general instruction,” Guevarra said. “The general includes the particular.”

Earlier, it was found that PSG personnel received shots of a COVID-19 vaccine that President Duterte identified as the one developed by Chinese state-owned firm Sinopharm, without the knowledge and approval of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Guevarra’s instruction to NBI officer-in-charge Eric Distor last Dec. 28 mentioned “possible violation of the FDA Act, the Consumer Act and the Medical Practice Act, among others.”

The FDA and the Bureau of Customs (BOC) have said they would also investigate how the Sinopharm vaccine used by the PSG managed to enter the country.

Yesterday, PSG commander Brig. Gen. Jesus Durante III said he is ready to be investigated and that he is taking full responsibility for the decision to inoculate Duterte’s security detail ostensibly to better protect the President.

Durante said they requested for the vaccines and that they themselves administered the shots, and that the President was informed about it only after the fact.

While the PSG is under the Department of National Defense, Durante said it was kept secret from DND Secretary Delfin Lorenzana.

Durante explained that the elite unit has a level of confidentiality as the primary group tasked to ensure the President’s safety at all times.

The PSG chief maintained the decision was justified in a “time of war” against the COVID-19 virus.

“As I have said, we are soldiers so we have to take risks just to accomplish our mission. The bottomline here… is we have to accomplish our mission at all costs,” the PSG chief told ANC’s “Headstart.”

“We did it in good faith. Our purpose in the PSG is to use it in the performance of our duty,” Durante added.

Durante also said he did not see any conflict of interest in terms of the source of the vaccine, dodging possible violations of Republic Act 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Practices Act.

“There are no deals involved or any favors involved,” he said.

He has refused to disclose the source of the vaccines or even confirm or deny what Duterte has already said, that it is the Sinopharm shot.

For his part, Lorenzana said he does not want military troops to be inoculated with smuggled vaccines, which he admitted was the case for the PSG.

While admitting that the vaccines were in fact smuggled, Lorenzana said that he does not see any breach of security committed by the PSG as this was done with good intentions.

But he said the PSG should explain their use of unauthorized vaccines, which could possibly be a violation of laws.

BOC Commissioner Rey Leonardo Guerrero stopped short, though, of saying the vaccines were smuggled. “We cannot yet conclude that it is smuggled,” he said, pointing out that they were still in the initial stage of investigation.

He said the BOC is still backtracking the previous importations as far as the alleged illegal entry of the vaccines is concerned, vowing that heads will roll “if found guilty of violating the law.”

Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) president Domingo Egon Cayosa said in a radio interview that concerned officials should disclose the PSG’s source of vaccines.

“They cannot refrain from disclosing where these came from,” Cayosa told dzBB, adding that transparency is necessary to determine if any laws were violated.

Meanwhile, Heath Secretary Francisco Duque III revealed that President Duterte has been advised by his doctor not to be vaccinated against COVID-19 unless the vaccine is proven safe and effective.

Duque said it was the President who mentioned this information to him.

He said that as far as the Department of Health (DOH) is concerned, government officials should not receive COVID-19 vaccines that are not yet registered with the FDA.

“They should not allow themselves to be inoculated with vaccines that have not been proven as to its safety and efficacy,” he told CNN Philippines. “(The) risk might be too much to take.”

On Tuesday, Interior Secretary Eduardo Año had confirmed that a Cabinet member had been inoculated with a vaccine from China.

Sen. Francis Pangilinan slammed the inoculation of the PSG, members of the uniformed services and some government officials with unregistered vaccines from China, saying it exposes the lack of “a clear, fair and sound game plan on the control and management of the disease.”

“Why were they vaccinated first? Aren’t there guidelines who will be vaccinated first as released by the IATF? Aren’t the health frontliners supposed to be the first?” the senator said in Filipino.

He cited these cases as a violation of the guidelines set by the Inter-Agency Task Force on the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) by no less than Malacañang.

Pangilinan expressed sympathy for Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr., concurrent chief of the National Task Force (NTF) on COVID-19 and “vaccine czar,” as officials and government agencies seem to be doing their own thing and not coordinating with him.

Last Dec. 14, the Senate approved Pangilinan’s Resolution 594 asking the Senate committee of the whole to look into the government’s COVID-19 vaccination program.

Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon said there appears to be a deliberate attempt to cover up the “illegal” inoculations.

“Their alibis are getting entangled. They are lying through their teeth in a bid protect those who are principally involved in the illegal shipment of the unauthorized vaccines in the country,” Drilon said in a statement.

He said that those involved cannot invoke “good faith” nor ignorance of the law: “It is a rule in law that ignorance of the law excuses no one from compliance therewith,” he said. “Our authorities should look into it and prosecute those involved.”

For Sen. Sonny Angara, the entry of the Chinese-made vaccines could have been an emergency measure “when there was no clarity yet on availability of vaccines.”

“They had to bite the bullet so as not to prejudice the delivery of public services,” Angara said, commenting on reports that the serums can be considered as smuggled.

Dr. Anthony Leachon, a former adviser to the NTF, said presidential spokesman Harry Roque’s defense that the Sinopharm vaccines were merely “tokens” was unacceptable.

He said the required two doses of Sinopharm vaccines costs around P7,450.

“That is not a ‘token’ amount, contrary to Harry Roque’s claim. The law limits to P5,000 the amount of a gift that a government official may accept. Anything above that is graft and corruption,” Leachon said. – Christina Mendez, Romina Cabrera, Robertzon Romero, Sheila Crisostomo, Paolo Romero