Drilon wants PSG chief to explain vaccine plan

Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon believes the Senate must summon Presidential Security Group (PSG) chief Brigadier General Jesus Durante to shed light on the country's COVID-19 vaccine plan.

Drilon stated that the PSG commander is deliberately withholding the basic questions of who and how from the public, alleging that all they give to the public are alibis, excuses, and lies.

Durante has previously accepted full responsibility for the unauthorized early vaccination of PSG members with a COVID-19 vaccine not yet approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

The PSG commander claimed that his group conducted the inoculation independently and without the knowledge of the President or any other agency.

Drilon supports Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra's directive for the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to investigate the unauthorized vaccinations, emphasizing that no one is above the law.

President Rodrigo Duterte had earlier disclosed that some military personnel received an unregistered Sinopharm vaccine from China before its regulatory approval.

Drilon further questioned who else was involved, how the unregistered COVID-19 vaccines entered the country, and who imported them from China.