“STAR confessions” was the title of the drama anthology that aired on TV5 a decade ago on the life of Ramon T. Tulfo.
Tulfo made his own star confession when he admitted in his The Manila Times column on Feb. 20, 2021, that he had himself vaccinated last October with the vaccine from the Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinopharm. He wrote, “I now confess to the public: I had myself vaccinated — along with some government officials whose names I won’t mention here — with the Sinopharm vaccine last October.”
He also said some members of the Presidential Security Group (PSG) were injected with the same vaccine against the Sars-CoV-2 that causes the coronavirus disease (Covid-19).
“Don’t ask me where I got the vaccine because I will never tell you,” Tulfo wrote.
To explain his motive for getting the Sinovac jab, Tulfo said, “That’s another confession: I have applied to be one of the distributors of the Sinopharm vaccine in the country. That’s why I risked my life to have myself inoculated ahead of the public.”
Did he get the distributorship? Tulfo didn’t say in his column. He only said that his family had instructions to let the public know should he die of the vaccine’s side effects.
Aside from questions on the efficacy of the Sinovac vaccine or why some people are saying they do not want that jab, what worries me with the arrival of the first shipment in the country today, Sunday, is that someone could be playing middleman between the source and the Philippine government.
This first shipment is a donation by the Chinese government. What about the other shipments still to come?
Tulfo’s boast also pictured him as someone with close ties with President Rodrigo Duterte and Sen. Christopher Go. He wrote: “During my private meeting with the President in the presence of Senator Go, I handed him my phone and had him talk to the Sinopharm representative in the country. Digong repeated his request for samples of the vaccine for him and his family.”
Since Tulfo raised the matter of Sinopharm distributorship, then somebody might be acting as distributor for future deliveries. Who is that person, and how does he figure in the government protocol that vaccine orders have to be done by the government?
I blame Tulfo for creating more confusion about the vaccine issue, particularly with the Sinovac which is the only supply so far that has a clear date for its arrival. Although the first shipment is a donation, it makes you wonder why Sinovac and if a middleman will be involved in future vaccine deliveries.
There are already questions over the safety and efficacy of that vaccine and government is facing the challenge of how to convince the public, including some medical frontliners, to take the jab. Tulfo’s revelations added to the confusion.