Who are the Sinopharm vaccinees in the Cabinet?

Sinopharm vaccinees in the Cabinet

            It’s the turn of cabinet members to come clean. Who among them surreptitiously got unlicensed COVID-19 vaccinations a month ago? Interior Sec. Ed Año avows to know at least one but won’t name who for privacy’s sake. Yet privacy can’t be invoked when laws appear to have been broken. Omerta is only for those missing some fingers.

            A hundred million Filipinos patiently are awaiting an inoculant from the deadly coronavirus. The cabinet vaccinees must answer people’s questions. Why did they jump the queue ahead of the medical frontlines, the sickly, elderly and pregnant? Do they think themselves exempt from the vaccination rules of the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases? If so, there are subtler ways to flaunt it. Try karaoke-ing in enclosed bars or dolphin-watching in tourist resorts while everyone else is on lockdown and curfew.

            The vaccines came from China’s state-owned Sinopharm. President Rody Duterte said so. Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana confirmed it. Sinopharm has no direct dealings with the Philippine government. Unlike in other countries, it has not applied for clinical trials on Filipinos. It has still to publish test results for peer review.

            Yet Chinese President Xi Jinping in a telephone call to Malacañang last June promised to prioritize Manila when a vaccine is developed. Could the doses for the cabinet vaccinees have come via diplomatic pouch? China aggressively has been employing “vaccine diplomacy” to showcase advances in medical technology. As well, to live down the fact that the global pandemic came from Wuhan, that it tried to keep the outbreak a secret at first, and that it let five million Wuhanese fly out before banning travel.

Sinopharm vaccinees in the Cabinet

            The Malacañang spokesman claims that the Sinopharm vaccines were donated. That does not exculpate the cabinet vaccinees. Whether from foreign or domestic donors, cash or kind, donations must be declared to the Department of Finance.

            The spokesman called the donation a “token”. Likening it to cake given by government officemates, he said acceptance broke no law. Yet Sinopharm’s chairman has priced its double doses at $145, or P7,250. The Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act limits to P5,000 the amount of a gift a public official may accept. Anything above that is unlawful.

            A COVID-19 inoculant is far from being a token. It is the most sought-after commodity in the world today, notes Dr. Tony Leachon. “Every nation is fighting for stocks and access to end the pandemic,” says the former chief medical adviser to the national COVID task force. “We know it’s urgently needed but let’s do it the right way to ensure safety of recipients.”

            The Presidential Security Group has admitted being recipient of the vaccines. PSG chief Major Gen. Jesus Durante III said they injected each other in September then in October. Without mentioning Sinopharm, he stressed that PSG studied the product thoroughly. In December Sinopharm clinical trials in Peru were halted when a volunteer suffered severe side effects.

            The PSG’s mission is to protect the President at all costs. Durante cleared Duterte of any role in the vaccinations. “He was surprised… when we told him about it,” he said. That departs from Army Chief Lt. Gen. Cirilito Sobejana’s line. Asked earlier if the vaccination order came from Malacañang, Sobejana told CNN Philippines: “Of course, our President is our Commander-in-Chief. I should say it’s from the chain of command of the Armed Forces.” Army spokesman Col. Demy Zagala also stated: “The vaccination occurred by the direction of the chain of command, headed by our Commander-in-Chief, the President.”

Lorenzana, Año, Sobejana, Durante, and Zagala are graduates of the Philippine Military Academy. There they were indoctrinated that “a cadet does not lie, cheat, or steal.”

The cabinet vaccinees would do best to speak up. Prolonging their silence only complicates matters. The Health department warns of possible adverse effects of unauthorized immunization. Their noses might grow longer every time they speak.

Not only the IATF, of which Año is vice chairman, was slighted. Two other regulators were ignored. The Food and Drug Administration has yet to authorize any vaccine for emergency use. The Bureau of Customs has no record of any vaccine import. Lorenzana said it was smuggled but “for a good cause” of avoiding infecting the President.

The National Bureau of Investigation sees potential breaches of the FDA Act, the Consumer Act, and the Medical Practice Act.

The spokesman claims there’s no more to be said about the unlicensed vaccination. But can he stop Duterte from dropping another New Year bombshell?

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Sinopharm vaccinees in the Cabinet