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Duterte again says military, cops should get vaccinated first
President Rodrigo Duterte has again insisted that the military and the police will be first in line to get COVID-19 vaccines in the country, even though the government's own priority list places them after health workers and senior citizens.
In an hour-long televised briefing on Monday night that was mostly taken up by his rant against a proposed Senate inquiry into the Presidential Security Group's use of unregistered vaccines, Duterte repeated his assertion
that uniformed personnel will be the first to be inoculated against the coronavirus."At even if talagang nauna [ang PSG], mauna talaga ang military," he said. "Ang military at ang pulis ang mauna, kasi pag mawalan tayo ng pulis pati military, out of control ang bayan."
Then he added, "Una kayo sabay sa military. Sabay-sabay kayo, yung mga mahirap nasa listahan ng—we will follow the list provided by the DSWD."
The President lashed out at those criticizing the PSG's use of unauthorized vaccines.
“Sabi nitong mga ugok, ‘Sabi ninyo una ang tao.’ Ang unang bakuna para sa tao, ‘yang tinatrabaho ni General [Carlito] Galvez. Kung totoo man itong sa PSG, hindi ito para sa inyo,” Duterte said.
“Kung anuman ang in-injection nila diyan… hindi na kayo kasali nito. Ako nga hindi ko alam eh. Alam ko, tapos na,” he added.
The Department of Health earlier released its priority list for COVID-19 vaccination, which places frontline health workers at the top of the list, followed by indigent senior citizens; the remaining senior citizen population; and the remaining indigent population. Uniformed personnel are fifth on the list.
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The priority list covers nearly 25 million Filipinos. The Philippines' vaccination plan aims to inoculate 60 to 70 million people in three to five years. The country has an estimated population of 110 million.
On Dec. 27, Duterte said that some members of the military had already been administered a COVID-19 vaccine developed by Sinopharm.
The Chinese company only received regulatory approval from its own country on Dec. 31. — with Julia Mari T. Ornedo/BM, GMA News