Being a humanitarian organization, the Philippine Red Cross (PRC) clarified that it will not be selling any vaccines, especially coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccines.

The PRC, in a series of tweets posted on its official Twitter account on Monday night, May 17, issued this clarification after news outlets online reported that the humanitarian organization will sell COVID-19 vaccines.

“To set the record straight, PRC Chairman Richard Gordon never announced that the Red Cross is selling vaccines,” said PRC Governor Ma. Carissa Coscolluela said in an official statement issued almost an hour after. “He stressed the need to act fast and vaccinate as many people as we can,” she added.

During the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (FOCAP) forum held Monday, Gordon was quoted as saying: “We will be charging P3,500 to recover the cost of our payment of the vaccines from Moderna.”

Gordon also noted that PRC has “already ordered 200,000 Moderna doses, so we’re going to vaccinate 100,000 people.”

However, Coscolluela maintained that what Gordon said was that the “PRC procured Moderna COVID-19 vaccines and intends to vaccinate Red Cross members and donors, who are also our members, who are willing to bear the cost of the vaccines, which was US$26.83 per dose plus an administration fee that covers costs for syringes, gloves, PPEs, meals and allowances of our doctors and nurses, and other essential expenses related to the vaccination.”

Coscolluela also stressed that the PRC is a humanitarian organization - thus, it is not in the “business of selling any vaccines.” Furthermore, it “does not charge for anything that it got free.”