Ramon Tulfo said that he approached a local company that also applied as a Sinopharm distributor in the Philippines.
President Rodrigo Duterte’s special envoy to China Ramon “Mon” Tulfo said that he approached a local company that also applied as a distributor of the Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine in the Philippines.
Tulfo on Wednesday denied committing wrongdoing in getting Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccines that he himself said was “smuggled” into the Philippines.
In a column on The Manila Times over the weekend, Tulfo said that he got himself vaccinated in order to prove China’s Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine’s efficacy as he had applied as its distributor in the Philippines.
Tulfo told ANC’s Dateline Philippines that he didn’t approach any Chinese official and instead approached only a local company that also applied as a distributor of the Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine in the Philippines.
In addition, he said that he approached the said firm as a private citizen and not as a government official.
When asked if the said vaccine was “smuggled”, Tulfo said “Yes” and added that he didn’t see anything wrong with it because he’s doing it as a private citizen and not as a government official.
Tulfo said that he got vaccinated along with “other government officials” and knew that Presidential Security Group (PSG) members received the vaccine before him.
He also said that he blamed the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez for the delay in the arrival of Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccines in the Philippines and for prohibiting the President from taking the vaccine.
“I really don’t find anything irregular about the President asking for vaccination because his request could’ve gone through the FDA. I would blame the FDA as well as our vaccine czar who did not approve of the President’s request to be vaccinated. The President wanted Sinopharm, his preference is Sinopharm but Galvez and FDA would not have any of it,” Tulfo said.
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