The country’s COVID-19 vaccination program seems to have gone on a bad start with the report that some Cabinet officials and members of the Presidential Security Guard (PSG) had themselves vaccinated against the coronavirus, now raging in a pandemic, with some donated vaccine. The PSG chief, Brig. Gen. Jesus Durante III confirmed that PSG men had indeed been inoculated in line with their mission to protect the President. It does seem reasonable that PSG men in close contact with the President should themselves be safe from the virus lest they transmit it to the President. There is, however, the question of whether there has been a violation of law. The FDA Law, RA 3720 as amended RA 9711, prohibits the “manufacture, importation, sale or offering for sale, distribution, transfer, non-consumer use, promotion, advertising, or sponsorship of any health product that is adulterated, unregistered, or misbranded, or any health product which, although requiring registration, is not registered with the FDA pursuant to this Act.” The FDA also has a circular providing that in a public health emergency, an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) must be filed and obtained from the FDA. The vaccine used and the inoculation of the Cabinet and PSG men was without FDA approval and, therefore, illegal and punishable by law, Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon said Tuesday. There is another point involved in the issue. The government had announced a policy that in the mass vaccination program, priority would be given to the country’s health workers, the poor and vulnerable, and other essential workers. It now appears that even before these priority groups, some Cabinet men and the PSG got the first protective vaccinations. Presidential spokesman Harry Roque has sought to explain away the situation by saying the Anti-Graft Law has not been violated with the acceptance of the vaccine in token amounts. “Tokens or things of small value are allowed especially during Christmas,” he said. That does not, however, touch on the main point – that a law may have been violated along with an announced policy on priorities – who should be the first to get the benefit of vaccination. We hope all his disputation on legality and policy does not set back the country’s mass vaccination program. It is already a big problem in itself – we don’t expect to receive our initial stocks of the vaccine until around May – five months from today. In all these months, we will have to rely on government restrictions and our people’s compliance with basic rules of social distancing and mask wearing to avoid getting and spreading the virus. The Cabinet and PSG vaccinations need not take too much of the nation’s attention in the face of this national effort to keep infections down until the vaccines come in May. But it is a problem that we should not face again in the future through steadfast compliance with the law and with established government policy.