Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine dose used on President Duterte was “not smuggled”.
Malacañang on Tuesday said that the Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine dose used on President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday was “not smuggled“.
During his regular press briefing, Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said that the Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine that President Duterte received on Monday night was part of the batch donated by the Chinese government.
“It forms part of the 1,000 doses of Sinopharm donated by China. These are not smuggled,” Roque said.
However, Roque said that he has no information on when the Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine arrived in the Philippines.
READ ALSO: President Duterte Receives First Dose Of Sinopharm COVID-19 Vaccine
Roque was responding to queries from reporters on why President Duterte took the Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine even if it has yet to secure an emergency use authorization from the country’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) — an approval tantamount to the Food and Drug Administration guaranteeing the COVID-19 vaccine’s efficacy and safety.
Also, Roque said that the Food and Drug Administration had issued a compassionate use permit for the legal administration of the 10,000 Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine doses in the Philippines, which include the 1,000 Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine doses donated by the Chinese government.
“Wala pong nalabag na batas. Hindi po ilegal ito,” Roque said of President Duterte receiving a Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine dose.
Roque also echoed Senator Bong Go’s statement that President Duterte took Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine based on the prescription of his physician.
For more news and updates, you may feel free to visit this site more often. You may also visit Newspapers.ph via our official Facebook page and YouTube channel.
