COVID-19 vaccines used by the military had no papers, according to BOC.
The Bureau of Customs (BOC) on Tuesday said that it didn’t receive any formal communication about the importation of COVID-19 vaccines administered to the Presidential Security Group (PSG) members.
In addition, the Bureau of Customs said that civil and administrative cases could be filed to those involved should the medicines be proven smuggled.
BOC assistant commissioner and spokesperson Philip Vincent Maronilla said in an interview on GMA Super Radyo DZBB that all COVID-19 vaccines that entered the Philippines should secure the necessary permits from the local Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which already said that it has not given any go-ahead for such medicines.
Last Saturday, President Rodrigo Duterte claimed that a number of Filipinos — including members of the military, particularly the Presidential Security Group — already had themselves vaccinated with a COVID-19 vaccine from Sinopharm, even without approvals from the Food and Drug Administration.
The Food and Drug Administration — also investigating the said issue — had since clarified that there’s still no COVID-19 vaccine approved for general use in the country and it has not yet given licenses to distribute and dispense the COVID-19 vaccine.
However, Maronilla noted that there may be instances that the importation of the COVID-19 vaccines could be justified, such as if there’s a provisional authority for the drug to enter the Philippines for trials.
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The Bureau of Customs was currently looking into the possibility that the COVID-19 vaccines were brought in through air freight given the logistical and transportation concerns of vaccines.
It’s also possible that the COVID-19 vaccines were brought in by the military themselves and no communication was given to the Bureau of Customs.
“Halimbawa dumaan sa paliparan ng Armed Forces, ‘yun naman po ay kadalasang kino-coordinate sa amin for Customs formalities, so we’ll ask the other agencies that are capable of actually bringing this in, if indeed there are importations that we were not informed of and that are the details of these importations,” Maronilla said.
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