Malacañang said it will leave it to the Ombudsman to look into the possible irregularities in the alleged application of Special Envoy to China Ramon Tulfo to become the local distributor of the Covid-19 vaccine of Chinese pharmaceutical firm Sinopharm.
Tulfo made the admission in his column published in a local newspaper last Saturday.
He said he had himself vaccinated with the Covid-19 vaccine of Sinopharm, which is not yet registered with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
He said he did it to publicly prove the vaccine’s safety.
Roque did not confirm or deny the claims made by Tulfo, including his supposed application to become a local distributor of the Sinopharm vaccine.
“We have no opinion whatsoever. We leave that to the Ombudsman,” Roque said.
Possible violations
Civil Service Commission Commissioner Aileen Lizada agreed with Roque that the Ombudsman may look into the case of Tulfo, whom she said may be held liable for graft and corruption for applying to become a distributor, while being a special envoy.
Lizada admonished Tulfo for his supposed violation of laws, particularly the FDA Act of 2009 and the Special Counterfeit Law, and government regulations.
“While the civil servant is beyond the disciplinary authority of CSC being a presidential appointee, it is incumbent upon him, as with any other civil servants, to act and conduct himself in a manner worthy of being called a public servant,” Lizada said.
“Like everyone else, public officials and employees are bound to obey the law, and that includes compliance to the standards set forth by the government authorities leading the battle against the Covid-19,” she added.
As for Tulfo’s supposed use of unregistered vaccine, FDA Director General Eric Domingo said they will be probing the matter.
“We will being investigating it since it is not good that some people are using vaccines, which did not pass through the right process,” Domingo said in an interview with PTV.
As of Wednesday, Domingo said Sinopharm has yet to apply for an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) to allow the local use if its vaccine.
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