President Duterte claimed Saturday that many people in the Philippines have received Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinopharm’s COVID-19 vaccine despite not yet getting the green light for use from local regulators.
In his meeting with the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) for the Management of Emerging Diseases and other medical experts in Malacañang, Duterte said that he will not lie that a lot of people in the Philippines, particularly soldiers, have been vaccinated.
“Sabihin ko sa iyo, marami na ang nagpa-injection dito sa Sinopharm (Let me tell you, there are many here who were already injected the Sinopharm vaccine),” he said.
“Halos lahat ng sundalo natusukan na (Almost all soldiers received it). I have to be frank and I have to tell the truth. I will not foist a lie,” he added.
According to the President, he has yet to hear negative side effects among those who received the Sinopharm vaccine.
The military is among the priority list of people in the Philippines who will receive the vaccine. During the meeting, Duterte reiterated that he wanted the members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to get the vaccine first so they can perform their jobs well.
“Pero gusto ko mauna sila (I want them to go first) because I do not want a sickly Armed Forces and a sickly police (force),” he said.
“The reason why is that they have to be in good health all the time because they are responsible for the law and order of this country,” he added.
Meanwhile, Duterte reiterated Saturday that the COVID-19 vaccine that the Philippines will acquire will be made available to all Filipinos, including members of the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) and the New People’s Army (NPA).
Duterte made the statement following an outburst against the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) during his meeting with members of the government’s pandemic task force and other health experts.
Duterte apologized to the participants of the meeting in Malacañang for going off-topic. He called the meeting to discuss the new COVID-19 strain.
He said that every Filipino can get the vaccine.
“Maghingi ako ng tawad sa (I apologize to the) body for the outburst. Hindi ko mapigilan sarili ko, eh (I couldn’t hold myself back) because we arrived at this issue of whether they should be vaccinated,” he said.
“All, all Filipinos. Ang Abu Sayyaf, mag-report lang kayo sa military, sila ang mag-bakuna sa inyo (For the ASG, just report to the military and they will be the ones who will administer the vaccine to you),” he added.
But for the NPA, the President seemed to have a different reason for allowing them to receive the vaccine.
“The vaccine is available to every Filipino citizen, including the communist NPAs so that you can fight better and you are healthy because I know that you will die,” Duterte said. (Argyll Geducos)
