National Police Chief General Guillermo Eleazar directed the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) on Tuesday to investigate the operations of “fixers” in the government’s ongoing Covid-19 vaccinations program, particularly in the scheduling of inoculations by local government units (LGU).
Eleazar issued the order after Pasig City Mayor Vico Sotto disclosed that two fixers were caught asking fees in exchange for allowing persons to get Covid-19 shots ahead of their schedules in the city’s vaccination program.
“I am directing the CIDG to investigate this scheme of vaccination schedule fixers in the different local government units. Maybe this modus is not only happening in Pasig and it must be stopped immediately. We will closely coordinate with our LGUs to prevent the proliferation of this modus,” the Philippine National Police (PNP) chief said.
The “schedule for a fee” modus was the latest scam to hit the vaccination program following the succeeding arrests of persons involved in the illegal selling and distribution of Covid-19 vaccines and test kits.
Eleazar lamented that despite the pandemic, there are still people who wanted to take advantage of others, even at the expense of health.
He said there are reasons why the government came up with the priority listing in its vaccination program, and this should be followed.
The PNP chief appealed to the public to avoid falling prey to the scheduling scheme by fixers and urged them to just patiently wait for their scheduled vaccinations.
He also urged the public to immediately report to authorities or through the PNP’s different E-Sumbong platforms any information they may share on vaccination fixing.