Duterte orders PSG to keep mum in Senate probe on COVID-19 vaccines

President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday night said he would order the Presidential Security Group to keep silent as regards the inoculation of some of its members with unregistered COVID-19 vaccines if its officials would be summoned to a Senate inquiry.

Duterte made the remarks after senators said PSG commander Brigadier General Jesus Durante III should appear before the Senate to shed light on the use of unauthorized vaccines.

"If that is the case then I would ask the PSG to just shut up. Do not answer. Invoke the right against self-incrimination at wala kayong makukuha and do not force my soldiers to testify against their will," Duterte said in his weekly address to the nation.

"'Wag ninyong i-contempt contempt na i-detain ninyo. I do not think that it will be good for you and for me it would not be healthy for everybody," he added.

Duterte warned of crisis between the Executive and Legislative branches if the lawmakers would use its contempt powers on the PSG.

"Don’t threaten with contempt, pag ginawa ninyo yan there will be a little crisis.
I am prepared to defend my soldiers. I will not allow them for all of their good intentions to be brutalized in a hearing," Duterte said.

"I think I will now tell Durante: Do not obey the summons. I am ordering you to stay put in the barracks," he added.

Duterte said he would have those who will arrest the soldiers in accordance with the summons arrested themselves.

Duterte's denial, disclosure

Duterte denied that he knew anything about the PSG's initiative to inoculate members of the President's close-in security detail.

He, however, indicated that it would be in his power if he wanted the entire Armed Forces vaccinated even without a vaccine registered with the Food and Drug Administration.

"If I say that I allow them, I will allow them. But I did not because they had it on their own," Duterte said.

"Pero kung gusto kong sabihin for emergency purposes, you give the vaccines, wala nang istorya yan, wala nang i-cover-cover. What would stop me from saying na sige pa injection kayo lahat, the Armed Forces?" he added.

Duterte repeatedly said that his security detail needed protection against COVID-19 in order to carry out their duties.

It was Duterte himself over the holidays who first revealed that some soldiers had received shots of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by China’s Sinopharm group.

"Sabihin ko sa iyo, marami na ang nagpa-injection dito sa Sinopharm... Halos lahat ng sundalo natusukan na,” Duterte said in a briefing on December 26.

On Monday night, Duterte said the vaccine had already been in use in the United Arab Emirates, adding in jest that its brand name was Milkmaid.

"I said wala akong tinanong kay Durante. It’s their own volition," Duterte said.

A day after Duterte said that some soldiers had already been vaccinated versus COVID-19, Durante admitted that it was his men who had been inoculated with the vaccine despite its lack of authorization from the Food and Drug Administration.

“You can say all the rules in this world, and there will always be an exception. Kagaya ninyo, hindi kayo maaresto while in session kaya wag niyong pilitin na magkaroon tayo ng ruckus dito,” Duterte warned lawmakers.

He also denied being injected with whatever vaccine was used on his security detail: “I did not have it, I refuse to."

"Pero sila dahil sa trabaho nila, hindi sila makalapit sakin so ang close-in security ko, wala,” Duterte said.

Despite his acknowledgement of the separation of powers between the Executive and the Legislative, the Chief Executive threatened senators against probing the PSG’s vaccination.

“I respect the separation of powers… The only reason that you can really investigate is in aid of legislation. So what is there in legislation that you can make that has something to do with vaccine?” a visibly irate Duterte said.

“I hope that we understand each other. I am not the grandstanding type, but do not, I said, force me to do something which is not good. Kung gusto ninyo ng gulo, sige.”  -NB, GMA News