Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Eduardo Año stressed Tuesday that individuals are not compelled to divulge any information if the COVID-19 vaccine administered were donated to them.
He issued the statement in the wake of the controversy surrounding the vaccine that was administered to the Presidential Security Group (PSG) members even without the approval of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
In an interview over GMA News, Año emphasized that the vaccine was not donated to certain government offices.
"Hindi naman siya dinonate sa Armed Forces as a unit eh, ito ay dinonate sa indibidwal na tao, walang sinasabi na ito'y isang command policy o command-directed activity. Nagkataon lang talaga na itong mga opisyal na ito ang nagpoprotekta sa Pangulo (It (vaccine) was not donated to the Armed Forces (of the Philippines) as a unit. It was donated to the individual persons. It does not say that it was a command policy or command-directed activity. It just so happened that those officials were the ones protecting the President)," Año said.
The DILG chief also explained that the PSG unit has nothing to do with this (injection of the COVID-19 vaccine).
“Ang masasabi natin na dapat transparent kapag ang donation ibinigay for example sa Philippine National Police, sa ganitong departamento (All I can say is that we should be transparent if the donation was awarded for example to the Philippine National Police, in this department),’’ he added.
Año noted that he thinks that this (vaccine) came from private persons who probably are businessmen that went in and out of the country and were able to purchase extra vaccines that they donated to the interested parties.
Earlier, Año said the public should not complicate the matter, which was initially disclosed by President Duterte.
He insisted the vaccination of PSG personnel would not affect the official rollout of COVID-19 vaccines in the Philippines.
FDA Director-General Eric Domingo said the agency is already looking into the inoculation of PSG personnel using the unregistered vaccine from Chinese firm Sinopharm.