Duterte wants 'anak ng artista' who got vaccine probed

President Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday night ordered an investigation on the COVID-19 vaccination of the child of an actor in Parañaque City.

In his nationally televised briefing, Duterte emphasized the importance of the vaccine priority list as this is part of the conditions posted by the World Health Organization.

“Hindi nasunod, yung iba balita ko naibigay sa mga anak ng artista, at iba pa, the favored few always,” Duterte said.

“Dapat sundin natin kasi sinabi sa atin ng country representative ng WHO if we don’t follow the list of priority, we might lose the assistance of WHO. It was made clear to us,” he added.

Duterte did not mention the name of the actor but ordered Health Secretary Francisco Duque III to investigate and file a complaint at the Ombudsman.

“Ikaw (Duque) na bahala, ayaw ko na lang magpangalan ng tao. It happened sa Parañaque, anak ito ng artista. Kayo na ang bahala mag-imbestiga nito,” he said.

“Let the legal office handle or idiretso mo na, make a report out of that incident and diretso mo na sa Ombudsman. Mas mabuti, mas madali,” Duterte added.

Earlier, Interior and Local Government Undersecretary Undersecretary Epimaco Densing III called out the vaccination of actor Mark Anthony Fernandez against COVID-19 in Parañaque City.

According to an article on PEP.ph, Fernandez said he received a dose of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine on Monday.

Densing said Parañaque City Mayor Edwin Olivarez has the command responsibility for the incident.

GMA News Online has asked Olivarez for his comment, but he has yet to issue a statement as of posting time.

Based on the prioritization set by the national government, the vaccination rollout in the country will start with frontline health workers followed by indigent senior citizens, remaining senior citizens, remaining indigent population, and uniformed personnel.  -- BAP, GMA News