President Rodrigo Roa Duterte is welcomed by Presidential Security Group (PSG) Commander Brigadier General Jose Niembra during the 122nd PSG anniversary at the PSG Compound on June 26, 2019. ROBINSON NIÑAL JR./PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO
Some security personnel in close contact with President Rodrigo Duterte have been injected with Chinese-made Covid-19 vaccines, Presidential Security Group (PSG) Chief Brig. Gen. Jesus Durante III said on Monday.
In a statement, Durante said it was a matter of national security to keep the virus from reaching the president.
“National security imposes the protection of the president being the commander in-chief from all forms of threat, especially Covid-19, in order to preserve the stability of our nation,” he said.
“With the current pandemic, PSG needs to ensure that they are not themselves a threat to the president’s health and safety. As such the PSG administered Covid-19 vaccine to its personnel performing close-in security operations to the president,” Durante continued.
The PSG chief, however, asserted that the soldiers who have received the vaccine shots could not speak for the effectiveness of the vaccine.
In a Palace briefing, Duterte’s spokesman Harry Roque said inoculation was voluntary.
“It’s a personal decision. Alam ninyo po, iyang desisyon kung magbabakuna o hindi is always a personal decision. Kahit ikaw po ay isang sundalo, kung ayaw mo talaga magpabakuna kahit anong brand ng bakuna iyan, hindi ka po mapipilit,” he stressed.
President Rodrigo Duterte in a televised meeting over the weekend revealed that some members of his military have received Sinopharm vaccines.
Sinopharm was the first vaccine to receive an emergency use approval (EUA) worldwide. However, the Philippines has yet to issue an EUA for the Chinese vaccine. John Ezekiel J. Hirro