PSG chief must face Senate to explain vaccination ‘mystery’ – Drilon

MANILA, Philippines — The commander of the Presidential Security Group (PSG) will have to explain to the Senate his admission that his men vaccinated themselves with a COVID-19 drug from China that is not yet registered in the Philippines and believed to have been brought into the country illegally, Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon said on Thursday.

In a statement, Drilon said Brig. Gen. Jesus Durante III should shed light on the controversy when the Senate sat as a committee of the whole to look into the government’s COVID-19 vaccination program.

‘We vaccinated ourselves’

“The most important ‘who’ and ‘how’ of the story remain a mystery. The PSG commander is deliberately withholding the basic questions of who and how from the public,” Drilon said.

Durante confirmed on Monday that the presidential guards had been vaccinated for COVID-19 and that they had voluntarily submitted themselves to vaccination to avoid becoming a threat to President Duterte’s health. He did not say who provided the vaccine and how it was brought into the country.

On Wednesday, Durante said the presidential guards received the first dose in September and the second in October, both times without help from medical professionals.

“We vaccinated ourselves. It was easy,” Durante said in a television interview. Again, he did not say who gave the vaccine to the PSG and how it entered the country.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has said it will investigate the PSG vaccinations, as the use of any unregistered vaccine in the Philippines is illegal. The Bureau of Customs has said it, too, will investigate to determine how the vaccine got past inspectors at the border.

Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said on Wednesday that he had directed the National Bureau of Investigation to look into the use of the vaccine by the presidential guards and how they obtained it. If probable cause to prosecute is established, he said, charges will be brought against the people involved.

“Somebody definitely did something wrong,” FDA Director General Eric Domingo said in a television interview on Thursday. “[Under] the FDA law, [it is] illegal to import, distribute, manufacture, use unregistered drugs.”

But when asked whether the FDA would bring charges against the PSG, Domingo didn’t say yes or no and just said the FDA’s regulatory enforcement unit would investigate. “Our enforcement unit is going to work with the NBI and the Bureau of Customs so that we can find and trace where the lapses were and where the breach is in our regulatory process,” Domingo said.

President Duterte, in a televised address to the nation on Monday night, disclosed the PSG vaccinations using the vaccine developed by the Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinopharm. He did not say how the PSG got the vaccine.

Donation

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said he had no knowledge of the matter.

Domingo said he was “surprised” because the FDA had not yet approved any of the candidate vaccines for COVID-19.

On Tuesday, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said it was not unlawful to be inoculated with an unregistered vaccine. What is prohibited by the law, he said, is the commercial distribution of the unregistered drug. He said the vaccine doses given to the PSG were donations but he did not know who the donor was and what the circumstances were behind the donation.

On Wednesday, Durante said he was taking “full responsibility” for the PSG vaccinations, but Drilon, in his statement on Thursday, said he was not buying the chief presidential guard’s “alibis.”

“All they (in Malacañang) give to the public are alibis, excuses and lies. There is more to it that will be revealed to the committee once Brigadier General Durante appears in our hearing,” Drilon said.

He said Durante was not answering vital questions: “Who else was involved? How did unregistered COVID-19 vaccines enter the country? Who imported it from China?”

Drilon said he supported Guevarra’s decision to have the matter investigated by the NBI.

‘Laws have been violated’

“Laws appear to have been violated. No one is above the law. The rule of law must be the rule rather than the exception,” he said.

Drilon cited the FDA law, which prohibits the importation and commercial distribution of unregistered drugs. Those involved in the PSG vaccinations, he said, face P50,000 to P500,000 fine or imprisonment of one to 10 years, or both.

The importer of the Sinopharm vaccine, he said, faces five to 10 years in prison and fine of P500,000 to P5 million.

“The FDA’s assertion that it has not given any emergency use authorization to any vaccine for COVID-19 is enough basis to prosecute those involved in this illegal inoculation. [The] authorities should look into it and prosecute those involved,” Drilon said.

—With a report from Patricia Denise M. Chiu