Dispatch from Crame No. 1,011:
Sen. Leila M. de Lima on Duterte's defense of the PSG on issue of unauthorized vaccination and the vaccination of Chinese POGOs

1/6/21

Ang tindi n'yo naman talaga diyan sa Malacañang. Isasalubong ninyo sa taumbayan sa bagong taon anomalya agad. Give the people a break, or at least have an iota of shame! Sobrang-sobra ng kabuktutan 'yan.

The PSG would not, at their own peril, inoculate themselves an untested COVID-19 vaccine, much less an unauthorized and illegal one, without the approval or explicit order from the President. This is nothing but another of Duterte's shameless and arbitrary use of executive power, and like the rest, so corrupt and deleterious to the public interest.

They cannot brush this anomaly out by calling this a non-issue. Because anything about this pandemic is a public concern.

If Duterte and his pro-China spin doctors don't find anything wrong with this illegal inoculation, why are they outdoing each other to sweep this anomaly under the rug? Why is Duterte willing to bring down the whole of government by threatening a constitutional crisis with Congress in ordering the PSG to defy the latter's summons to an inquiry?

The Senate should take on Duterte's challenge to show him that he is not their boss, the Constitution is. The Senate should show the public that they cannot be ordered around by Duterte or be treated like lapdogs to do his bidding. Isa lang naman at Senator-caregiver at dakilang presidential alalay, and not the rest of the Senators who remain or ought to remain independent of Malacañang.

The PSG officials should face the inquiry. The Filipino people did not pay for your four (4) years of PMA training just to be the cowardly servants of a man who cannot even face up to his own decision to put his own presidential guards in peril by ordering them to inject themselves with an illegal drug.

So ganito na lang ba parati, kahit mali, kahit labag sa batas, kahit garapalan, kahit sampal sa kapakanan ng publiko, basta si Duterte ang pasimuno wala ng imbestigasyon, wala ng pananagutan? Nakakahiya naman sa "follow the law" ninyo!

Then on top of this is the illegal innoculation of Chinese POGO workers. This is Duterte's icing on his cake of insults that he has served the Filipinos on New Year. Our country has been porous to anything China-sourced since 2016, most of them illegal, like the tax-evading POGOs.

At ngayon nauna pa bakunahan ang mga Chinese diyan sa POGO kaysa sa mga Pilipino. Alam kong hindi na misteryo kung bakit nangyayari 'yan. Ang kababalaghan ay parang normal na lang na kahit na ilegal ang bakuna dahil hindi aprubado ng FDA, at smuggled pa, ay ok lang daw ayon sa Malacañang. Pikit-mata na naman, o garapalan na at wala ng pagkukubli na dito sa Pilipinas ay Chinese first?

Repeated betrayal of public trust by an aberrant President! Enraging!

(Access the handwritten version, here: https://issuu.com/senatorleilam.delima/docs/dispatch_1011)