By Rjay Zuriaga Castor
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| PHOTO: Inquirer.net |
MANILA, Philippines– "The message is clear: they would
die for the president's safety and to give him protection... We aren't hiding
anything, VP Leni Robredo," said Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque
addressing the vice president who earlier called for transparency in probes on
the issue, casting fear that it would only hurt efforts for the public to trust
the supposed COVID-19 vaccines.
In a Palace press briefing on Monday, January 4, Roque
reiterated that the inoculation of PSG members shows respect and loyalty to
their mission of protecting the president.
Firm on their stance, Malacañang thinks that the smuggled
coronavirus vaccines taken by members of President Rodrigo Duterte's security
detail ahead of other listed beneficiaries are a closed issue that Filipinos
should simply move on from.
The vaccines that were taken, however, has not yet been
given regulatory approval by the country's
Food and Drug Administration before they can be rolled out, and under
the government’s prioritization scheme of vaccine recipients, healthcare
workers will be the first to get COVID-19 vaccines.
Uniformed personnel are supposed to be fifth in line among
other groups prioritized for vaccination, following health workers, senior
citizens, indigent senior citizens, and the rest of the indigent population.
But in the same breath that he defended them, Roque that the
presidential security personnel welcomes probe by government agencies.
"Well, I think the message of the PSG is that they are
ready to die for the security of the president. Their mission is to protect the
President of the Republic of the Philippines and his immediate family. So they
made the decision, even if it was without authorization, to get vaccinated. In
other words, because they were ready to die for him, they decided to get
inoculated in order to lessen the chances of the president transmitting the
virus," Roque said in Filipino.
Roque once again, leaned on the same familiar narrative it
has brought up in instances of controversy: that legitimate concerns being
raised against the administration's shortcomings are supposedly just a trumped-up
narrative being exploited by the administration's political opposition.
"Let us stop this discussion because our conversations
at this moment should now be focused on the vaccines, when they're coming, and
how we'll be able to spread it among our countrymen. Let's stop the politics.
We already know that this issue that is being used by the enemies of the
government is not going to end. The president pays tribute to the PSG, and they
risked their lives for him," he said.
"Our PSG are not scared of any punishment they might
receive. They're willing to die for the president, why would they care about a
penalty?" he added, urging Filipinos, many of whom were also bypassed in
the priority for vaccination, to instead be thankful for the
"sacrifice" of the PSG.
Health workers and advocates earlier slammed the COVID-19,
as healthcare collectives have said that "24 million health workers and
patients were bypassed, and especially leapfrogged by those not even listed yet
were able to receive it illegally."
“Even if these vaccines were somehow donated to these
government officials, ethics and FDA policies should have prevented this
affront to our institutional integrity,” the Coalition for People’s Right to
Health said, condemning the “blatant” disregard of existing laws and processes.
The FDA and the Department of Health cautioned the public
against the purchase and use of unregistered vaccines.
The FDA and Bureau of Customs are conducting separate probes
into the PSG vaccination. The National Bureau of Investigation's Special Action
Unit has also been assigned to look into the use of unregistered COVID-19
vaccines in the country.
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