13 officials told to explain queue jumping

From just five, the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) said it has already issued show-cause orders against 13 local executives for jumping the queue to get vaccinated against COVID-19. In a radio interview on Wednesday, Undersecretary Epimaco Densing said 11 mayors, one governor and one councilor were currently being investigated. However, he did not identify them. Densing said of the 13, only Mayor Noel Rosal of Legazpi City in Albay has responded to the DILG’s order. More show cause orders will be issued to local executives as the DILG continues to receive reports, complete with photos, of them receiving a jab, despite not being in the current priority of the vaccination program. They were still validating the name, but among them was a barangay chair. Densing last week identified five mayors, who are ordered to explain why they received the jab, despite not being in the current priority of the vaccination program. The Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) has yet to formalize the inclusion of local chief executives under the A4 priority group, as requested by the League of the Cities of the Philippines. Absent a resolution, local chief executives are lumped in B2, the seventh in the list, along with other government workers considered nonessential by the IATF. —DEXTER CABALZA