Fears of widespread black-marketing of vaccines against COVID-19 have emerged after a Filipino-Chinese civic leader said almost 100,000 Chinese expatriate workers in the country have received the jab to protect against the coronavirus as early as November last year.
Sen. Risa Hontiveros on Tuesday urged health authorities to investigate the unauthorized COVID-19 vaccination of Philippine Offshore Gaming Operator (POGO) workers in the country, most of them Chinese.
Speaking to ANC, Hontiveros also prodded the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Department of Health (DOH) and Health Technology Assessment Council (HTAC) to ensure protocols for vaccine approval were followed.
The senator likewise urged the DOH and the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) to recommend the inclusion of China in the list of countries banned from entering the country to prevent the transmission of the new COVID-19 variant first found in the United Kingdom.
Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers also asked the government to prioritize and focus their investigation in identifying and prosecuting smugglers and their facilitator-cohorts from the Bureau of Customs of the unregistered China-made anti-COVID vaccines now being illegally sold in the Philippine drug market.
“If the Department of Justice and the National Bureau of Investigation won’t probe and determine the real circumstances behind the illegal importation of the vaccines, most likely there are people earning loads of cash by fooling our citizens and government in the middle of the pandemic,” Barbers added.
However, vaccines used by government officials went through "official channels" and such vaccines were not from the black market nor fake, Filipino-Chinese civic leader Teresita Ang-See said on Tuesday.
A Cabinet official had already been inoculated against the coronavirus aside from members of the Presidential Security Group, Interior Secretary Eduardo Año earlier said.
Ang-See, however, said she doesn't know if the vaccines used on PSG members were also "official."
"I do not know if the PSG vaccines are among those that are official. I said the vaccine used on government authorities went through official channels, it's approved, it's not fake, it's not from the black market,” she told ABS-CBN's Teleradyo without elaborating.
Ang-See said some 98,000 Chinese workers have been inoculated against the coronavirus even if the government has yet to approve the emergency use of a vaccine candidate.
"Reports surfaced in October and November that there are vaccinations. That’s why I also alerted some doctors that I know at DOH it's scary that unscrupulous black marketeers inoculate people and if something happens it destroys our confidence in China vaccines especially,” Ang-See said.
"The DOH has had many attempts to really find out because we have no source of information whether it’s true or not but we just wanted to caution,” she said.
Ang-See said the inoculation of Chinese workers was "unlawful," but that she agrees with Malacañang that it was "good" that they have protection against the virus.
"I agree with Sec. Harry Roque that it's good they're protected because we don’t have any control as far as they are concerned. I said it's good they are resourceful, they should just be careful that the vaccines aren't fake or it will create more harm,” she said.
"My emphasis is it’s still unlawful, that's why the government has to review its policies,” Ang-See said.
She cited as an example Chinese traditional medicine that was approved later in the Philippines compared with Singapore, Korea, and Japan.
"Before November, we confiscated these herbal medicines in raids. I said, if it helps Chinese nationals, why are you confiscating them?”
Hontiveros, however, called out the Duterte administration from exempting China from the travel ban meant to stop the entry of the new COVID-19 strain already confirmed in that country.
“Why was China exempted? Are you again scared to hurt China? Let us prioritize the Philippines," she said.
Upon the recommendation of the DOH and DFA, the Office of the President recently included the United States on the list of countries subject to travel restrictions, after cases of the new variant were confirmed there.
Hontiveros said that the agencies should strongly suggest the same for China.
"The new variant is easily spreadable. Let's not wait for our hospitals and nurses and doctors to groan before we act,” she said.
Authorities have launched a countrywide operation to crackdown on the supply and inoculation of black-marketed vaccines.
With the second highest coronavirus caseload in Southeast Asia, the Philippines is expected to ink agreements with AstraZeneca, Novavax and Pfizer by end of this month,
The country, aiming to secure at least 80 million vaccine doses, expects to begin the inoculation drive in the second quarter of this year.
Health Secretary Francisco Duque, in a media briefing this week, said the black-marketing of vaccines has alarmed the government.
The Food and Drug Administration is working in tandem with investigators and Customs officials to track down on those involved in the illegal import and supply of such doses, Duque said.
