“No, we’re all Filipinos.”
This was what Ayala Corporation chairman emeritus Jaime Zobel de Ayala reportedly said when he was offered to go ahead while waiting to be vaccinated against COVID-19 along with other people in Makati.
An alleged photo and video of the 86-year-old businessman with his wife Beatriz Miranda Barcon, surfaced on social media, where they were queuing in a vaccination site in Makati City on Tuesday.
A Facebook post by Michael Yu Full claimed that the couple was “offered to go ahead but Don Jaime refused to skip the line, saying ‘No, we’re all Filipinos.”
They were allegedly vaccinated with Sinovac’s CoronaVac, a coronavirus vaccine from China.
Michael also claimed that the incident reminded him of how the couple’s son, Ayala Corp. CEO Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala, was previously spotted waiting in line at a buffet in a hotel he owns.
“Yet at lunchtime, he patiently waited in line at the buffet, when he could have had the whole crew of Fairmont Hotel wait, serve and attend to him if he so pleased. That is a true humble, decent and mannered family right here, Michael claimed.
A video of the Zobel de Ayala couple also surfaced on the social networking site, alleging that the patriarch refused to be prioritized in the vaccination.
The Zobels control one of the country’s oldest companies and has been consistently included in the roster of Philippines’ wealthiest by the entrepreneurial magazine Forbes.
Meanwhile, other personalities who have refused to be prioritized in the coronavirus vaccination include collegiate basketball coach LA Mumar, who is Pasig City Mayor Vico Sotto’s half-brother.