In September and October, members of the security class of President of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, received vaccines from Covid-19. But no injection was approved for use in the country – then or now.
Lawmakers are trying to find out how the vaccines were smuggled.
The scandal came after Duterte said last month that several members of a military unit in charge of his personal protection were vaccinated without his knowledge. Brig. General Jesus Durante III, the unit’s commander, later said that “a handful” of guards were vaccinated in September and October to protect the president from exposure to the virus.
Mr Durante said that the president learned of this only after the two necessary shots were fired, and that the unit acted without the help or approval of any other authority.
“We got vaccinated,” he said in a television interview. “It is so easy.”