Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s security team received an unapproved coronavirus vaccine produced by China, sparking a controversy over “VIP vaccines” taking precedence over health workers.
“I know some from the Cabinet and the Presidential Security Guards,” Interior Secretary Eduardo Ano told local radio, per the Philippine Star. “Until those people confirm it for themselves, I cannot say their names.”
Philippine health regulators have not yet approved the coronavirus vaccine produced by China’s state-owned Sinopharm, which has been greeted with skepticism in the island’s legislature. Yet, Duterte’s team justified the reach for China’s vaccine on national security grounds in language emblematic if Duterte’s affinity for Beijing.
“The news is that the vaccine is already here, and if we cannot be given Western vaccines, our friend and neighbor China is willing to give us vaccines,” Duterte spokesman Harry Roque said. “It’s not prohibited under the law to get inoculated with an unregistered [vaccine]. What is illegal is the distribution and selling.”
The Philippines is a traditional U.S. ally in a strategically significant location, positioned to dispute China’s claims to the sovereignty of the major shipping lanes that course through the South China Sea. Yet, Duterte’s poor human rights record has developed into an irritant in the alliance, while the brash president has attempted to curry favor with Beijing and flinched from confronting Chinese aggression.
Pfizer has applied for permission from Manila to distribute a U.S.-approved vaccine in the Philippines, Duterte’s team announced Saturday. “Since Pfizer is already approved in America, it’s almost automatic that the company will be authorized,” Roque said at the time.
Duterte hinted that some officials had gained early access to a Chinese vaccine over the weekend, but the revelation caught security officials by surprise. A military spokesman subsequently defended the “bold step” of using the unapproved vaccine on national security grounds.
“Because the safety of the president equates to national well being, that security posture should necessarily include protecting the commander in chief from contracting the deadly virus from those he is constantly exposed to, like the members of his security detail,” Philippine Armed Forces spokesman Maj. Gen. Edgard Arevalo said.
The revelation comes at an awkward time for Duterte, just days after Philippine Food and Drug Administration Director-General Rolando Domingo confirmed that the government has conducted “three raids” to prevent the unauthorized use of the vaccine.
“How did it happen that some soldiers, and perhaps select civilians, have already gotten an advance vaccination with a China-made vaccine?” Philippine Sen. Leila de Lima, who has been held in pre-trial detention for three years on drug charges that human rights activists say stems from her criticism of Duterte’s support for extrajudicial killings, asked in a handwritten note published by the local press.
Roque, who said in December that the government would give vaccines first to front-line healthcare workers and then to senior citizens, brushed off questions on Monday while distancing Duterte from the decision to vaccinate the security team.
“Let’s just accept that our military who guards our security is now safe from COVID when they can do their job,” he said. “I don’t think [Duterte authorized the inoculation of soldiers]. It must have been the decision of the commanders and the soldiers.”
