Gordon seeks deportation of Chinese nationals jabbed with unauthorized vaccine

MANILA, Philippines — The 100,000 Chinese nationals, mostly workers at Philippine offshore gaming operators (Pogo), who were supposedly inoculated in the Philippines with an unauthorized COVID-19 vaccine can be deported for violating the law, Senator Richard Gordon said Wednesday.

“There’s a law. They’re foreigners, they come in here, they should [be vaccinated] within what the law requires and if they don’t do that, they’re in violation and they can be deported. And if there’s success, [in the vaccine], I don’t care, they violated the law. As simple as that,” Gordon said in an interview over ABS-CBN News Channel.

Earlier this month, Filipino-Chinese civic leader Teresita Ang-See disclosed that around 100,000 Chinese nationals based in the Philippines were inoculated in December even as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has yet to approve a COVID-19 for use in the country.

In reaction, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said he could not ascertain the veracity of this claim that the foreigners used an unauthorized drug, but said that if true, then it was a “good” thing as this means there are now less possible carriers of the virus.

“They’ve been violating the law left and right, I have nothing against the Chinese… but when it comes to something that the public is going to use, the law requires that there be testing done by the FDA, certification by the FDA,” Gordon, however, said.

“Any health product must be registered with the FDA before it can be imported, distributed, used and administered. Here they used it, and they administered it and they distributed it, all in violation of the law,” he added.

EDV