There is nothing wrong if government officials have already been immunized against COVID-19 even before local regulators have authorized the use of a vaccine in the country, Senate President Vicente Sotto III said on Monday.
Sotto said he sees no issue with President Duterte's admission that several people in government, particularly soldiers, were given doses of COVID-19 vaccines from Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinopharm ahead of the approval by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
"I don’t think there’s anything wrong about that. There is no law that says you cannot take any medicine or vaccine that FDA has not approved," Sotto said in a message to reporters.
He also pointed out that there is no law prohibiting people from putting themselves at risk or committing suicide.
"Last I recall, there is even no law vs. suicide. So what’s the fuss?" he said.
Besides, he is "sure" that the vaccines used were given for free.
"'Yong mga pumapalag, pwede 'yong reklamo nila kung gobyerno nagbayad. Eh kung donation? Umangal sila sa donor bakit 'yon gusto nila inuna! (Those who are reacting against it can complain if the government paid for it. What if this was a donation? Complain before the donor why they chose those people to go first!)," he said.
Duterte on Saturday said that he will not lie about the fact that almost all Philippine soldiers have already been injected with the vaccine from Sinopharm. This was confirmed on Monday by Philippine Army chief Cirilito Sobejana, although saying for his part that only "some" members of the military were inoculated against the disease.
Department of Interior and Local Government Secretary Eduardo Año also said he knew that "some from the Cabinet and from the Presidential Security Group" have also been vaccinated.
Soldiers and policemen are among the government's priority for its upcoming COVID-19 vaccination program, as Duterte had repeatedly committed in in his pronouncements.
Despite this, government officials also promised to prioritize health workers and members of the poor and vulnerable societies, as well as other essential workers in government.
Earlier, Sotto bared that Senator Panfilo Lacson and House Majority Leader Martin Romualdez were already vaccinated against COVID-19. Lacson, however, refused to categorically confirm or deny whether he was indeed immunized, hinting that it could be just a joke within them.
The Senate Committee of the Whole is set to discuss in January the government's COVID-19 vaccination program.