Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa said he is willing to get vaccinated in public once COVID-19 vaccines are available and approved for public use.

“Yes, yes, I am willing. As long as the vaccines came from Sec. Galvez, not those vaccines that are secretly acquired if there are any. Because they might be fake, who will I hold accountable if I end up in danger? We should be on the safe side,” Dela Rosa said when asked by radio DWIZ in an interview Saturday.

“If I have any influence over our countrymen, and I can influence them to get vaccinated, then I am willing to do it in public,” he added.

Asked in jest which part of the body would he prefer to be injected with the vaccine, Dela Rosa said: “ Braso, oy. Gawin mong public 'yon na sa pwet mo? Sa braso lang (On my arm, of course. What, you want to make public your vaccination in the buttocks? I will be injected on the arm).”

This was in reference to President Duterte, who, according to his spokesman Harry Roque, prefers to get shots of the coronavirus vaccines through the buttocks area. Roque said this was Duterte's reason for wanting to keep his inoculation private.

But if he would be allowed to choose a brand of vaccine to receive, Dela Rosa said he would choose the vaccines developed by China-owned Sinopharm, as he believed that it is the “safest” of all the brands.

“Because I conducted a research – before they say that I am endorsing a certain brand – but for me, in the research that I did, it turns out that Sinopharm is using the safest technology,” Dela Rosa claimed.

“Other products were reportedly developed using new technology that has not been tested well over time. So I am assured that Sinopharm is safe, I will go for what's safe, if I will be allowed to choose,” he said.

Sinopharm, which reportedly yielded a 79.34 percent efficacy rate in clinical trials, plans to apply for an emergency use authorization from the Philippines' Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its COVID-19 vaccines, Philippine Ambassador to China Jose Santiago Sta. Romana said early January.

China has approved Sinopharm's vaccines for the immunization of their people.