The Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) will be investigating four more mayors who allegedly violated the government’s vaccination protocols.
During his public address on Wednesday evening, President Rodrigo R. Duterte named Mayor Elanito Peña of Minglanilla, Cebu; Mayor Victoriano Torres of Alicia; Mayor Virgilio Mendez of San Miguel; and Mayor Arturo Piollo II of Lila among those line-jumping to get Covid vaccines.
Among those who already received a show cause order from DILG for non-compliance with the government’s priority listing are: Mayor Alfred Romualdez of Tacloban City, Leyte; Mayor Dibu Tuan of T’boli, South Cotabato; Mayor Villalobos of South Cotabato; Mayor Noel Rosal of Legazpi City, Albay; and Mayor Abraham Ibba of Bataraza, Palawan.
Duterte said violating vaccination priorities could compromise the additional doses the country will receive from the Vaccines Global Access (Covax) facility.
He mentioned a child of a local celebrity was also vaccinated in Parañaque despite not being a health care worker (HCW).
Mandatory compliance
The country was able to secure an initial 525,600 donated doses of AstraZeneca vaccines from the Covax facility through the World Health Organization (WHO), on the condition the vaccines would be used for HCWs.
“In times like these, when we are only the donee, we accept and comply the conditions set by the donor,” Duterte said. “Because the country representative of WHO told us if we do not follow the list of priority, we might lost the assistance from WHO.”
The government is targeting to complete the vaccination of 1.7 million medical workers by the middle of April once the additional vaccines arrive.
As of March 23, the Department of Health (DOH) said the government had vaccinated 508,332 individuals.
“They will get their second dose [of the vaccine] after 28 days,” Health Secretary Francisco Duque III.
He said the government has so far secured 30 percent of the 3.4 million doses of vaccines that the government needs to immunize 1.7 million HCWs.
Image credits: Malacanang Presidential Photographers Division via AP