Coronavirus vaccine shots mandatory for Filipino soldiers
MANILA: Vaccines are mandatory for members of the 150,000-strong Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), who have no choice but to get their inoculation shots from the Chinese manufacturer Sinovac whose 600,000 doses are to arrive on Sunday, according to a top military officer.
“To get vaccinated or not is not an option for members of the AFP. They need to be vaccinated so they won’t be a burden or add to the problem,” Major General Edgard Arevalo, the military spokesman, told an online media briefing.
Arevalo warned that officers and men who refuse to get inoculation shots would be charged with insubordination punishable by the Articles of War. If they refuse to take the Sinovac product called Coronavac, they would have to pay for their jabs from other vaccine brands, he added.
Military soldiers and officers, Arevalo explained, play a key role as first responders in hospitals, quarantine checkpoints and in transporting supplies and stranded people due to natural or man-made calamities.
As such, AFP personnel could take any vaccine brand provided they pay for it, according to Arevalo. As it is, he said there is no choice for them but to take the shots from Sinovac whose products totalling 600,000 doses donated by the Chinese government is scheduled to arrive on Sunday.
On Friday, Harry Roque, the presidential spokesman, confirmed that President Duterte would lead in the official welcome for the arrival of the donated 600,000 doses at a military airbase in suburban Pasay City, Metro Manila on Sunday.
“It’s in his schedule,” Roque texted Malacanang Palace reporters, pointing out that in leading the welcome, Duterte wanted to show the COVID-19 donation was the Philippines “debt of gratitude” to the Chinese government.
Earlier, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted the Sinovac application for emergency use authorisation (EUA), thus paving the way for the official entry of the product in the Philippines. Sinovac was the third vaccine maker to get the EUA, the first two being Pfizer from the US and Astrazeneca from the United Kingdom.