FILE PHOTO: Cagayan de Oro City 2nd District Rep. Rufus Rodriguez. (From Rodriguez’s FB page)
MANILA, Philippines — Cagayan De Oro City Rep. Rufus Rodriguez on Tuesday hit the “inaction” of some government officials in addressing COVID-19 spikes in Mindanao and Visayas.
According to Rodriguez, the lack of allocated vaccines is the problem of Cagayan de Oro and other “battlegrounds,” or places with high COVID-19 cases and deaths, moistly in Mindanao and Visayas.
“The problem is the inaction of Sec. Duque, Sec. Nograles, Sec. Galvez. No action at all for the battleground places of the Philippines, only Metro Manila lang,” Rodriguez said.
He was referring to Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, Cabinet Secretary and Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) co-chair Karlo Nograles, and vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr.
“That is why we have difficulties now in our cities, kulang talaga ang vaccine, nasa A2 at A3 pa kami [we really lack vaccines, we are still in (in the process of vaccinating) A2 and A3],” he added.
Rodriguez said the national government should prioritize and reallocate vaccine supply in areas experiencing a spike in COVID-19.
“The way to really lessen deaths, is to be able for the IATF and Galvez to realize that there are certain cities and places in our country, which have higher incidence than the other,” said Rodriguez.
“So therefore, diyan dapat i-reallocate [we should reallocate it there] and give more priority and give more additional vaccines,” he added.
Hospitals in Cagayan de Oro are also at full capacity, according to Rodriguez, private hospitals already have a wait list of up to 20 people.
On Monday, Rodriguez said that he will fault Galvez for the deaths of coronavirus patients in his city while he expressed his frustration over the slow and low distribution of COVID-19 vaccines in Mindanao.
Rodriguez said he had written to the IATF and Galvez twice, as early as May, requesting for an increase in vaccine supply for Cagayan De Oro City but did not receive any reply to both of his letters.
Cagayan de Oro is one of the areas OCTA Research has identified as areas of concern along with Butuan, and Cotabato City in Mindanao; Bacolod, Iloilo City, Dumaguete, and Tacloban in Visayas; and Tuguegarao City in Luzon.
As of June 14, total cases in Cagayan de Oro is at 8,836, with active cases currently at 1,624, and deaths at 388.
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