Illegal coronavirus vaccines plotting the country's black market have prompted the senate to call for an inquiry.
Members of the security detail of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte issued Covid-19 vaccines in September and October. But no shots were approved for use in the country, either then or now.
Late on Monday night, Duterte instructed the soldiers of the Presidential Security Group (PSG) "not obey the summons" and that they "stay put in the barracks," saying that he would not allow them to be "brutalized for all their good intentions" before a Senate investigation.
As the revelation that Filipino soldiers protecting him had already inoculated. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte dismissed illegal coronavirus vaccines that were allegedly brought from China.
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Following the president's comment, on Tuesday morning, the Armed Forces of the Philippines, which has authority over the PSG, declared that it was halting its inquiry into the criminal liability of the soldiers concerned.
The president's most recent comment came amid additional revelations that at least 100,000 Chinese operating in online gaming operations in the capital, Manila, had already received the illegal coronavirus vaccines from China as early as November, aside from the Philippine military.
Secretary of Defense Delfin Lorenzana said members of the Presidential Security Group (PSG) had received and administered the illegal coronavirus vaccines without government permission and knowledge.
"Yes it's smuggled, because they were not authorized, only the government can authorize it," he told reporters when asked if the vaccine is brought illegally in the country.
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On Tuesday, Brigadier General Jesus Durante, head of PSG, told the ANC news channel that a handful of union members had "in good faith" received a coronavirus vaccine. The president, after the vaccination, was only then notified.
The unit could no longer afford to wait for approval, Durante said. He did not mention how the vaccine in the black market had been acquired or which one had been used.
Any manufacture, distribution, and selling of a COVID-19 vaccine in the black market has been declared by the FDA to be at present illegal and warned of possible dangers from the use of vaccines that it has not authorized.
It said that it was working with the Customs Bureau to decide how the illegal coronavirus vaccines were brought into the country.
Some senators are demanding answers and want the head of Duterte's guard to appear before an inquiry on the government's vaccination plan set for next week.
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Meanwhile, Presidential Spokeperson Harry Roque brushed aside claims that at least 100,000 Chinese citizens working in the Philippines were also injected with China's illegal coronavirus vaccines.
"I don't have any informations. But if it is true, then it's good, as there will be 100,000 fewer possible carriers of COVID-19" in the country, Roque said.
Teresita Ang-See, the Filipino-Chinese group chief, said on Monday that the vaccine used on the Chinese workers was actually the same as that used on the Filipino soldiers and that it came through an "official channel."
However, Ang-See failed to recognize that the Philippine Food and Drug Administration has not approved any coronavirus vaccine.
According to Philippine labor statistics, approximately 140,000 Chinese nationals have been allowed to work in 2019. In the middle of last year, Beijing said it had launched a program to inoculate people working overseas.
