The Senate plans to conduct an investigation into the government’s vaccination plan next week, and some senators want the head of the Presidential Security Group (PSG) to appear and explain the unit’s actions, which they said are illegal.
“Don’t listen to the summons,” Duterte, the head of PSG Brig. Gender. Jesus Durante in a late night televised address. “I order you to stay in the barracks.”
Last week, Durante said a handful of members of the unit used the vaccine “in good faith” because they could not afford to wait for regulatory approval, adding that the president was only informed afterwards. He did not name the vaccine used or say how it was obtained.
Duterte, who praised his security details for their “loyalty and courage” in inoculating, said he did so for “self-preservation.”
“I am ready to defend my soldiers. I will not allow them, for all their good intentions, to be brutalized in the meeting,” Duterte said.
His spokesman, Harry Roque, said the military details did not break the law.
“The president welcomes PSG for what they have done. They risked their lives to protect our president,” Roque said in a media briefing.
Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana last week declared PSG’s move “justified” even though he said the vaccines they had been giving since September, without his knowledge, had been smuggled into the Philippines.
The Philippine Food and Drug Administration has not approved a Covid-19 vaccine – making the importation, distribution and sale of a coronavirus vaccine illegal – and has warned of the potential dangers of using vaccines that it has not eliminated. .
He said he was working with the Customs Office to determine how the vaccines were introduced into the country.