Sobejana confirms some soldiers ”were already vaccinated” with COVID-19 vaccine

December 28, 2020

Philippine Army chief Lt. Gen. Cirilito Sobejana confirmed Monday that there are soldiers who received COVID-19 vaccines.

Sobejana did not give details on the number and unit of troops who were injected with COVID-19 vaccines but he noted they include  "officials and non-commissioned officers."

"I know some but I could just not disclose the unit. Personally, I know that there are troops under the Armed Forces who were already vaccinated," he said in a radio interview.

"I do not know what kind of vaccine what I only know is that there is a vaccine that was given to them,"  he added.

On Saturday, President Rodrigo Duterte announced that there are soldiers who were vaccinated with Sinopharm, a COVID-19 vaccine from China.

Sobejana said the decision about the vaccination of soldiers come from the "chain of command of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

"Well of course our President is the commander in chief of the AFP I should say that it's from the chain of command of the AFP," he said.

However, in a public briefing AFP spokesman Maj. Gen. Edgard Arevalo said "there is no inoculation or vaccination that was sanctioned by the AFP for the members of the Armed Forces,"

Sobejana also emphasized the importance of a COVID-19 vaccine for the military frontliners.

"It will give protection to our soldiers, especially our frontliners, because they are more prone from contamination of COVID-19 virus," he said.

Sobejana expressed optimistism that the vaccine will be effective as he confirmed that so far the vaccine did not have ''negative effect'' on soldiers.

"They are okay. I talked with them. There is no negative effect noticed," he said.

"We're optimistic that this vaccine that (was) already injected to our soldiers will be effective so that we can further improve our service to our people," he added. Robina Asido/DMS