MANILA, Philippines — Senate President Vicente Sotto III on Saturday questioned the lack of attention given to unregistered medicines in the wake of the controversial self-inoculation by the Presidential Security Group (PSG) against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
“Bigyan ninyo ako ng drugs na hindi approved. Napakahaba, ang dami. Mayroon para sa sakit sa ulo […] na binebenta over the counter. Binibili over the counter. Bakit hindi nila tinutugis iyon? Ngayon may nababalita na nag-injection, tutugisin? Bakit? Bakit hot na hot kayo na gusto ninyo sa inyo dumaan lahat iyan?” Sotto said over DWIZ when asked about the PSG’s move to vaccinate themselves even as there are still no approved COVID-19 vaccines in the country.
(Give me names of drugs that are not approved. There is a lot. There is one to cure the headache that is being sold over the counter. Why are we not going after this? Now there’s that self-injection issue, we go after that? Why? Why are we so hot about this issue that we need to study this?)
Sotto also noted that the self-vaccination of PSG personnel did not come from the government’s funds.
“Hindi naman pera ng gobyerno ang ginamit e. Kung pera ng gobyerno ginamit talagang kami kaagad mismong sabihin ko ‘teka muna bakit niyo uunahin niyan? Pera ng taumbayan iyan, unahin muna natin kababayan’ or sabihin ninyo samin sino ba dapat unahin?[…] Pero hindi nga pera ng taumbayan e,” he said, still reacting on the PSG issue.
(This did not come from the government’s funds. If this is the government’s money then I will complain about self-vaccination. Why did they prioritize the PSG? or we will ask them who should be prioritized for the vaccine. )
Sotto previously said the Senate Committee on the Whole hearing will focus on the roadmap for the government’s vaccination program and not the PSG self-vaccination.
READ: Senate hearing to focus on gov’t vaccination plan, not PSG issue — Sotto
In a previous televised speech, President Rodrigo Duterte asked Congress not to interfere with the self-inoculation of PSG members, saying it is a matter of self preservation.