The AFP would verify Ramon Tulfo’s claim that soldiers received “smuggled” COVID-19 vaccine, according to Arevalo.
The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) would verify former Special Envoy to China Ramon “Mon” Tulfo‘s claim that soldiers received “smuggled” COVID-19 vaccine.
GMA News Online reported that the Armed Forces of the Philippines would look into the allegation of Tulfo that soldiers were among the people who received “smuggled” COVID-19 vaccines last year.
Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) spokesperson Maj. Gen. Edgard Arevalo on Thursday said in a press briefing that they haven’t received any information that more soldiers — aside from members of the Presidential Security Group (PSG) — were inoculated with unauthorized COVID-19 vaccines.
“Narinig pa lang natin ‘yang balita na ‘yan. Allow us to look into that at magbibigay tayo ng additional information sa nakatataas sa atin Aalamin natin kung may reason para mag-conduct tayo ng investigation,” Arevalo said.
READ ALSO: Ramon Tulfo Willing To Face Probe Over Sinopharm Inoculation
Arevalo’s statement came after Tulfo admitted in his column in The Manila Times last Saturday and in an interview on “One News” last Tuesday that he — alongside a senator, some Cabinet-level officials, police, and military — got vaccinated with “smuggled” Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccines last October 2020.
Last December 2020, PSG Commander Brigadier General Jesus Durante III admitted that PSG received COVID-19 vaccines as early as September 2020, when no COVID-19 vaccine products had received an emergency use authorization (EUA) from the country’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) yet.
According to Durante, his unit acquired the vaccine for free, but he refused to disclose its source. Durante also said that the military personnel vaccinated the unauthorized COVID-19 vaccines to themselves and nobody outside the military was involved in the inoculation.
In addition, Durante defended the vaccination and said that President Duterte’s close-in-security detail “needs to ensure that they are not themselves a threat to the President’s health and safety.”
However, according to Sinopharm’s sole distributor in the Philippines, Sinopharm had denied that it supplied the COVID-19 vaccine used on the PSG members.
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