By Artchil B. Fernandez
Du30 opened 2021 with a scandal involving his close-in security. His big mouth placed the Presidential Security Group (PSG) in a difficult and tight situation. He revealed in his first public appearance of the new year that the PSG had been vaccinated with a COVID-19 vaccine manufactured by Chinese firm Sinopharm.
Filipinos were aghast and outraged by the revelation. How is this possible? Unknown to the nation vaccination was done on the PSG in a time when officially there is no approved Covid-19 vaccine available in the country. Not only there is something sinister in the incident, it is a grave violation of the law.
Under the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Law as amended by Republic Act No. 9711, the “manufacture, importation, exportation, sale, offering for sale, distribution, transfer, non-consumer use, promotion, advertising, or sponsorship of any health product that is adulterated, unregistered or misbranded or any health product which, although requiring registration, is not registered with the FDA pursuant to this Act” is are prohibited. PSG vaccination also blatantly violated FDA Circular No. 2020-036, or the Guidelines on the Issuance of Emergency Use Authorization for Drugs and Vaccines for COVID-19.
The FDA has not approved any vaccine for Covid-19 as of this writing. The agency is still in the process of approving several vaccine applications of pharmaceutical companies. It has not issued an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) to any vaccine for Covid-19. What the PSG did last year is patently illegal.
As the scandal escalates, the PSG has violated more laws aside from the FDA Law. PSG said they administered the vaccine on themselves. Are they now medical personnel? They can also be held liable under the Medical Practice Act. Those who did the inoculation must be authorized and have undergone injection training. Did the PSG undergo such training and received their certificates? It is also a violation of the Medical Practice Act to administer an unauthorized drug.
There is also the question on how the Sinopharm vaccine got into the country. Since the FDA has not approved the use of the vaccine, it cannot be legally imported. The vaccine injected to the PSG entered the country unlawfully and smuggling is illegal. The PSG is in hot water. They broke several laws.
Defenders of the administration side-stepped the violation of many laws by the PSG and tried to justify the illegal act. Bato de la Rosa even praised the PSG for being heroic notwithstanding breaking the laws of the land. “It has not yet been established if that vaccine is effective because it has not been approved by the FDA [Food and Drug Administration],” he blurted. “But they already had the vaccination. So let’s thank them for making themselves guinea pigs in that experiment. If the results are good, then thank you. If bad, it’s a pity for them for risking their lives for that vaccine.”
After putting the PSG in trouble Du30 is now using autocratic antic to shield them from investigation. He warned the Senate on its plan to investigate the incident. “Hindi naman ako nakikiusap, deretso lang na salita na do not tinker with the PSG. I’m telling you, as President, it’s a matter of self-preservation. Do not force my hand to meddle into this affair. Maybe I am not so keen about allowing (PSG chief) Durante and the rest of the PSG to testify. Do not force my soldiers to testify against their will. It would not be healthy for everybody. Sa kanila yan eh. So kung tingin nilang ikakabuti sa buhay nila, hayaan mo. Do not threaten them with prosecution or anything like that.”
Here lies the hypocrisy and everything that is wrong with Du30 and his administration. Du30 packaged himself as a law and order president yet his administration is marked by the twisting, mangling and even outright breaking of law. The incident involving the vaccination of PSG is just the latest in the long saga of the thrashing the laws and weakening of institutions under the present administration.
Du30 claims he is a law and order president yet his administration had no qualms of breaking the laws as shown by the scandal involving the PSG. Du30, a lawyer, knows that a drug not approved by the FDA cannot be used and its use breaks the law. Now that the PSG is caught doing it, courtesy of Du30 himself, he is threatening anyone who tries to uphold the law.
Once again the fakeness of Du30’s law and order posture is exposed. The law for Du30 is only a weapon to be used against his perceived enemies and serve the selfish interest of his administration. He has no respect for the law nor have any intention of upholding it. The law for Du30 is merely a tool for a self-serving end.
But this act of Du30 ignoring the law once it suits his interest has dangerous implications in this time of pandemic. It is a recipe for chaos.
Given that the FDA can now be ignored when securing a vaccine for Covid-19 as exemplified by what the PSG did, anyone in this country can now import and use any vaccine on the disease. Du30 has castrated the FDA, rendered it a useless agency.
Should the government crackdowns on the use of drugs or vaccines not approved by the FDA, its legal and moral authority is greatly diminished. The PSG has set a treacherous precedent. If the law cannot be applied to the PSG, what authority does the government have to enforce it to its citizens? There cannot be two set of laws in the country, one for the PSG and another for the rest of the Filipino people.
Unless Du30 applies the law on the PSG, it’s now a free-for-all in terms of using vaccines and vaccination in this dark time of COVID-19 pandemic. Anybody, anyone, any entity can use any vaccine, including those not approved by the FDA. Du30 has opened the floodgates of chaos and during a pandemic this is a greater tragedy.
