MANILA, Philippines — Senators on Tuesday pressed the country’s pandemic managers to quicken the pace of the vaccine rollout amid reports of people illegally selling vaccines against COVID-19 or their slots in the queue online as impatience mounted over bottlenecks in the government’s mass inoculation drive.
Sen. Panfilo Lacson joined calls to dispense with some protocols that were holding up the vaccination program, including prescreening requirements like the taking of blood pressure and filling out redundant forms.
“Many whose blood pressures will be taken run a higher risk of getting infected. They may end up getting infected while in line,” he said.
Lacson said the authorities “should further trim the process” by making sure recipients who already filled out several forms when registering online need not accomplish the same forms on site.
As for the people who were trying to profit from vaccine bottlenecks, Lacson said: “While arresting those responsible and filing the appropriate charges against them would be a good start, authorities can take a much bigger step by accelerating the vaccination process by making it more efficient.”
Jabs for jobs
In a separate statement, Sen. Joel Villanueva urged health authorities to kick the vaccine drive into high gear by doubling the rate of the administration of the COVID-19 jabs.
“If we can increase our vaccination rate to 325,000 doses a day, then we will be delivering 72 million doses from now until the end of the year,” the chair of the Senate labor committee said.
Sen. Grace Poe also emphasized the need to vaccinate “as many Filipinos as possible” to allow those who were displaced to return to work immediately.
“Jobs are the best cure for poverty, just as jabs are our relief to the pandemic. In both situations, the urgency of the action is critical,” Poe said in a statement.
Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra, for his part, has ordered the National Bureau of Investigation to submit next week its initial findings on the investigation of the alleged sale of COVID-19 vaccines and slots.
In his order to Eric Distor, officer in charge of the NBI, Guevarra directed the NBI to “submit reports on the progress of the subject investigation directly to the Office of the Secretary within 10 days and periodically thereafter.”
Guevarra also directed the NBI to file the appropriate charges against all persons involved in the supposed illegal activity.
“If evidence warrants, to file the appropriate charges against all persons involved and found responsible for any unlawful act in connection therewith,” it added.
Online scam
Guevarra directed and granted the NBI the authority to investigate alleged vaccine and vaccination slot sale as requested by Metropolitan Manila Development Authority Chair Benjamin “Benhur” Abalos Jr.
With efforts of the Philippine National Police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group to arrest the identified schemer in progress, Gen. Guillermo Eleazar, chief of the PNP, raised on Tuesday the possibility that the offer to sell COVID-19 jabs and slots may just be an online scam.
He said the PNP Anticybercrime Group had not monitored public posts offering vaccines or slots for sale.
“If we closely look at it the first people the seller offered the vaccines and slots to were legitimate online business owners. The offers were made to them through direct messaging so it’s possible they are being targeted by scammers,” Eleazar said.
“We cannot also discount the possibility that this is politically motivated, probably employed to discredit the reputation of the [local governments] involved,” he added.