FILE Sen. Cynthia Villar (Screen grab/Senate PRIB)
MANILA, Philippines — Fully vaccinated individuals should be accorded with privileges in order to convince those who refuse to get inoculated to receive their anti-COVID shots, Senator Cynthia Villar said Wednesday.
“What I noticed in the policy of the IATF (Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases), they don’t want to give any special privilege to the vaccinated,” Villar said during the budget hearing of the Senate finance committee.
“How can you convince those who do not want to be vaccinated to be vaccinated when you are fully vaccinated and you’re not allowed to go out and enjoy life?” she added.
“We have to give some privileges to the vaccinated para ma-convince natin yung matitigas ang ulo na magpa-vaccinated [so we can convince those who are hard-headed] because that’s the only way. Because why will they be vaccinated when they enjoy the same privileges as the vaccinated?” the senator stressed.
According to Villar, convincing more people to get vaccinated will lead the government closer to its herd immunity target and spur more economic activity.
“Dapat i-insist niyo sa IATF na ‘pag vaccinated bigyan naman ng privileges para yun namang ayaw magpa-vaccinate e ma-convince natin na ma-vaccinate para ma-vaccinate natin ang ating target para mabuksan natin ang ating economy for the sake of the small, micro-enterprises na umiiyak na sila talaga ngayon,” the senator told Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III.
(You should insist to the IATF that the vaccinated should be given privileges so we can convince vaccine refusers to get vaccinated so we can reach our target and open up the economy for the sake of the small, micro-enterprises who are struggling today.)
The finance committee is being briefed by the Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) on the proposed 2022 national budget.
Among the members of the DBCC is the Department of Finance.
Senator Sonny Angara, chairman of the finance panel, backed Villar, saying a restaurants’ association had requested that its members be allowed to cater to dine-in customers “during certain levels of quarantine.”
“I’d like to second what [Sen. Villar] said because I received the position from the restaurants association and they are asking they be permitted to allow indoor dine in even during certain levels of quarantine, so long as those who would dine would present their vaccine card,” Angara said.
Dominguez agreed with the two senators, saying he is suggesting measures in order to open up the economy more.
“We open more the economy but require the business, particularly the larger businesses to provide weekly testing and tracing,” Dominguez said.
“Move towards a rational approach to managing the containment of the virus,” he added.