The Police Regional Office (PRO-6) has placed its personnel on heightened alert to prevent unregulated COVID-19 vaccination activities in Western Visayas.
Brigadier General Rolando Miranda, PRO-6 director, said on Friday, Feb. 12, he had already ordered all police stations and units to be on the lookout for smuggled and unauthorized COVID-19 vaccines that may have entered the region.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said the “manufacture, importation, exportation, sale, offering for sale, distribution, transfer, non-consumer use, promotion, advertisement, or sponsorship of any unauthorized vaccine” are prohibited.
So far, Miranda said they have not monitored any black market activity for unregistered vaccines in the region.
In December last year, Presidential Security Group (PSG) Commander Brigadier General Jesus Durante III admitted that his members received COVID-19 vaccines but refused to divulge the source of the unregistered drugs.
In his address to the nation early last month, President Rodrigo Duterte disclosed that the unregistered vaccines given to the members of his security group were made by Chinese pharmaceutical firm Sinopharm.Angelique Amira Jabian/IMT
