Government authorities have been investigating three companies that are allegedly unauthorized to sell COVID-19 vaccines, an official said on Tuesday.

National Task Force Against COVID-19 Chief Implementer and Vaccine Czar Carlito Galvez Jr. said his office has coordinated with the National Bureau of Investigation, police intelligence, chief of the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, and the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency to go after those selling unauthorized COVID-19 vaccines.

"We have seen that the WHO (World Health Organization) came out with a warning (about) the rampant availability of what we call as fake vaccines," he said.

"And also, in some instances, there are three companies that we have ordered to be investigated because we record check where their vaccines came from, and we found out that they are not authorized by the mother company of the vaccines," Galvez said.

He refused to name the three unauthorized suppliers.

Galvez said the entry of the vaccines being offered to different local government units seemed to be spurious.

"That's why we made a nationwide alert with the LGUs that if they will conduct negotiations with the different vaccine companies, it should be properly coordinated with us because we have the wherewithal and also we have the agencies like the intelligence community that can really locate and look at the records and the company profile of these companies that will be possibly putting at risk, selling what we call fake and illegal, and smuggled illegal vaccines," he explained.

He said cases will be filed against the three companies if they found merits.

"We can assure that our dealings will be on top of the table, at the same time, it is within the purview of the recently approved legislation that we have," Galvez added. Celerina Monte/DMS