Mayor Isko Moreno tells NBI to jail all those selling vaccines. Photo by JERRY S. TAN
Isko: Jail illegal sellers of COVID vaccines
JAIL them all!
This was the reaction issued by Manila Mayor Isko Moreno to the news that a nurse from Manila was caught red-handedly selling 300 Sinovac vaccines for P1 million and got arrested by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).
“We thank the NBI for helping the city government protect our citizens. Congratulations NBI, jail them all!” Moreno said.
Meanwhile, Manila Health Department chief Dr. Arnold ‘Poks’ Pangan said there is no way that the vaccines allegedly being sold by a nurse who got arrested in Quezon City had come from the ones being kept at the storage facility of Manila.
Pangan added that all the vaccines housed in the city’s storage facility are well-guarded and accounted for. The city uses two storage facilities, one at the Sta. Ana Hospital and another in Parañaque, where the Sinovac doses are kept.
Dr. Ted Martin, director of the Gat Andres Bonifacio Memorial Medical Center since Moreno assumed office in 2019, said that the nurse, identified as Alexis de Guzman, had been with the city for the past 15 years and is currently assigned at the operating room.
Martin also said that De Guzman is not part of the city government’s vaccinating team and that based on information gathered, his wife is said to be a businesswoman who, for years, had been engaging in the selling of anti-flu and anti-pneumonia vaccines.
As of this writing, Moreno had called for a meeting to discuss the matter.
Moreno himself is against the selling of any COVID-19 vaccines as in fact, he even initiated the passage of Ordinance 8740 which prohibits the sale of vaccines anywhere in the city.
Said ordinance, which was unanimously passed by the Manila City Council under Vice Mayor Honey Lacuna as its presiding officer and majority floor leader Atty. Joel Chua, renders as unlawful for any person, institution, corporation, group or organization to engage in the sale, distribution or administration of COVID-19 vaccines for gain, income or profit, while the country is in a state of public health emergency and without full market authorization issued by the Food and Drug Administration.
Violators face a fine of P5,000 and imprisonment not exceeding six months. In addition to all these, the business license issued to the said persons, corporations, group or organizations shall be immediately revoked and they shall be banned from doing business in the City of Manila.
De Guzman was nabbed in an entrapment operation along with Calvin Yeung Roca, a Filipino-Chinese, and Kour Singh by the NBI task force against illegal drugs under Ross Jonathan Galicia, who said the suspects were part of a group allegedly selling COVID-19 vaccines to the public, particularly Chinese workers.
