Duterte wants health workers prioritized over mayors in vaccination

MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte decided that health workers be prioritized in vaccination over mayors due to the limited supply of Covid-19 jabs, vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. said Tuesday.

Galvez asked local chief executives for their understanding since allowing them to be vaccinated first will “compromise” the prioritization of health workers.

“Once na nag-start po tayo ng vaccine sa ating mga mayors, lahat po ng mayors sa baba, magpapa-vaccine po yan. It will compromise yung tinatawag po natin na slots para sa ating healthcare workers. Sana maintindihan po natin, pasensya na po kayo,” Galvez said during a vaccination program in Marikina City.

(Once we start vaccinating mayors, all other mayors will have themselves vaccinated too. It will compromise the slots for healthcare workers. I hope you understand, I’m really sorry.)

“Kasi kahapon po, mainit ang discussion namin sa Malacañang tungkol po dyan. At nagdecide na po ang Presidente natin na unahin muna ang healthcare workers,” he added.

(We had a heated discussion over this in Malacañang. And the President decided that healthcare workers be prioritized.)

According to Galvez, Duterte said the vaccination of local chief executives may start once the country receives more supply of Covid-19 vaccines.

“Sabi niya [Duterte] kapag 2 million na yung ating stockpile, pwede na sila. Kung pwede, konting pasesnya lang po. Kasi mangilan-ngilan lang po ang ating vaccine,” Galvez said.

(He said if our stockpile reaches 2 million, they can be vaccinated. If you may, we ask for your patience. Because we have a limited supply of vaccines.)

Some mayors have volunteered to be first in vaccination to increase public confidence on the vaccines.

The Philippines started its Covid-19 vaccination program on Monday after it received 600,000 doses of Sinovac vaccines from the Chinese government.

JPV