Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 3)— Amid the reported crackdown on a fake vaccine ring in China, a lawmaker urged the Bureau of Customs and the Philippine National Police to be vigilant and ensure that no smuggled, counterfeit product enters the country.
“We need to keep watch of our borders like bloodhounds. Ni isang pekeng bakuna ay hindi dapat makalusot (not one fake vaccine should be able to enter the country),” Senator Risa Hontiveros said in a statement on Wednesday, citing reports that Chinese authorities recently confiscated over 3,000 doses of fake COVID-19 vaccines.
“Our own authorities need to bust any plan to bring those fake vaccines onto our shores. Anyone willing to put other people in danger for quick profit should be apprehended and put behind bars,” she added.
More than 80 people involved in the production of fake coronavirus vaccine doses in China have been arrested, CNN reported earlier this week, citing state media Xinhua News Agency.
Those involved in the crime ring, which Chinese officials said has been running since September last year, “have been making huge profits by fulfilling saline solution into injectors to process and make fake coronavirus vaccines and selling them at a higher price,” the agency noted.
Meanwhile, Hontiveros also warned the public against getting inoculated through the so-called black market and urged them to trust in the national COVID-19 vaccination plan.
Concerns over a possible presence of a vaccine black market in the country were raised following the revelation that a number of military men, including President Rodrigo Duterte’s security personnel, received shots of the China-made Sinopharm vaccine.
Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said the vaccines were smuggled into the country. Government agencies including the Food and Drug Administration, the Bureau of Customs, and the National Bureau of Investigation have launched probes into the issue.
Sinopharm’s local distributor earlier told CNN Philippines that not a lot of vials were brought in, adding it was possible that the doses were obtained from clinical trials in Abu Dhabi.
