(Eagle News) — President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday, January 5, defended the Presidential Security Group’s move to have some of its members inoculated against COVID-19, noting they did it 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.
According to the President, if the PSG were to be summoned by Congress he “would just ask the PSG to just shut up, do not answer” even if he would have allowed them to testify “kung sana tinanong ninyo nang mabuti without necessarily blurting out threats na have them investigated.”
Instead, then, he said he would ask them to invoke the right against self-incrimination.
“And I would like to call on Congress, na hindi naman ako nakikiusap, ang akin lang, diretso na salita…Do not tinker with the PSG. Do not force my hand to meddle into this affair. Maybe I am not so keen allowing Durante (PSG chief Brigadier General Jesus Durante) and the rest of the PSG to testify,” he added.
Last week, opposition Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon said Durante should be summoned to a Senate inquiry following his decision to use COVID-19 vaccines in the country in the absence of an emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration.
The PSG earlier defended the vaccination, noting that it was to ensure President Duterte, whom they guard, remains safe amid the threat of COVID-19.
Interior Secretary Eduardo Año said the vaccine used by PSG were from pharmaceutical company Sinopharm and had been donated.
