(Eagle News) — The Armed Forces of the Philippines has called off its probe into the inoculation of Presidential Security Group members for COVID-19.
AFP spokesperson Major General Edgard Arevalo’s announcement came after President Rodrigo Duterte defended the PSG over its move, noting their need for “self-preservation.”
“They have every right to live and invoke (self-preservation). In criminal law, that is the right to self-defense. The enemy? COVID,” the President said in his weekly talk to the nation on Monday, January 4.
The PSG earlier said the vaccination was necessary to ensure the President, whom they guard, remains safe amid the threat of COVID-19.
The Food and Drug Administration has yet to issue an emergency use authorization for the use of any COVID-19 vaccine in the country.
Senate President Tito Sotto has said House Majority Leader Martin Romualdez and Senator Panfilo Lacson had gotten vaccinated for COVID-19.
Lacson has neither confirmed nor denied Sotto’s statement, while Romualdez has not issued a statement on the matter.
The AFP probe was supposed to start today, January 5.
