The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) cannot say yet if sanctions will be imposed on the members of the Presidential Security Group (PSG) who inoculated themselves with an unregistered COVID-19 vaccine.
News This is a general instruction. Not zeroing in on the PSG or on any particular incident of unauthorized vaccination, Guevarra said in a message to reporters on Wednesday. After PSG inoculation, NBI to probe unauthorized COVID-19 vaccinations By NICOLE-ANNE C. LAGRIMAS, GMA News
Published December 30, 2020 5:06pm Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra has ordered the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to look into unauthorized inoculations against COVID-19 using unregistered vaccines. Guevarra said he instructed NBI officer-in-charge Eric Distor to investigate on Monday, a few days after President Rodrigo Duterte revealed that some Filipino soldiers they would later turn out to be members of the Presidential Security Group (PSG) had been vaccinated.
Department of National Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana
(MANILA BULLETIN FILE PHOTO)
“Yes, it’s smuggled. These [vaccines] are not authorized [to enter the country.] Only the government can authorize that through the FDA [Food and Drug Administration],” said Lorenzana during the sidelines of the celebration of the 124th martyrdom anniversary of Dr. Jose Rizal at the Rizal Park in Manila.
Lorenzana further admitted that he already knew about the vaccination of the soldiers long before the issue was made publicly by no less than President Duterte, but he noted that he was unaware who gave the green light to perform the vaccination.
Published December 30, 2020, 5:54 PM
Senate Minority Leader Franklin M. Drilon on Wednesday said there is a deliberate attempt to cover up the facts of the illegal inoculation of some members of the cabinet, the Presidential Security Group (PSG) and the military with an unauthorized vaccine produced by China-based Sinopharm.
Senator Franklin Drilon (Senate of the Philippines / MANILA BULLETIN FILE PHOTO)
‘’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.
Drilon, a former Justice secretary, said there is no way the unauthorized vaccines could have entered the country without the Bureau of Customs (BOC) clearance.
Vaccines should go through the normal registration process even if they are donated, the head of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said Wednesday, amid the controversy over an unregistered COVID-19 vaccine used on some soldiers.