Vice President Leni Robredo distributed bowls of rice porridge (lugaw) to children and residents of Sitio Sumbingco, Barangay Damsite in Murcia, Negros Occidental on Saturday, Nov. 6. (Photo from OVP)
BACOLOD CITY — It is better to incentivize people to get vaccinated against COVID-19 than to make it mandatory, according to Vice President Leni Robredo.
Robredo, who was in Negros Occidental on Saturday, was reacting to the report that the Department of Health (DOH) may have to implement mandatory vaccination to achieve herd immunity against COVID-19.
“Pero para kasi sa akin, mas mabuti na kapag may hesitance, mas mabuti na i-incentivize. I-incentivize sila para magpa-bakuna kaysa pinaparusahan iyong mga ayaw magpa-bakuna (For me, it is better to incentivize if there is hesitation. They should be incentivized to get vaccinated rather than punished if they don’t want to be vaccinated),” she said.
Punishing or imposing a fine was not effective, she added.
“We have seen in our programs that when you give incentives, people agree on their own free will and I think, it’s the more effective way,” she said.
The Office of the Vice President for instance has the campaign to get as many people vaccinated against COVID-19 as possible.
Robredo said her office has set up a Vaccine Express where they go to the farthest places to vaccinate people. They have also volunteered to vaccinate Overseas Filipino Workers, she added.
Robredo visited the Murcia Women’s Association – Lakas ng Kababaihan (MWA–LNK) at Sitio Sumbingco, Barangay Damsite, Murcia, Negros Occidental, on Saturday.
She met with officers and chapter leaders of MWA-LNK, recipient of OVP’s sustainable livelihood subsidy grant amounting to P362,000 for their rice retailing livelihood project.
They shared with Robredo how the project was identified and the status of the project since it was launched on August 24, 2021.
Between August and October 2021, MWA-LNK purchased a total of 395 sacks of rice which were distributed to 87 retailers and earned a gross income of Php 21,250, they said.
MWA-LNK is registered under the Department of Labor and Employment and was organized through the initiative of 15 women leaders from different barangays in Murcia.
It was organized with the aim of scaling up the members’ advocacy for the protection of women and children’s rights and improving their members’ quality of life — that is, for women to have income and to be able to contribute to their family’s financial requirements such as sending their children and/or grandchildren to school.
They said they strongly believe that access to knowledge and education can reduce the incidence of violence against women and children.
After the MWA-LNK meeting, the Vice President joined the “Palugaw ni Leni” at the open court in Sitio Sumbingco organized by the Laban Leni Negros Occidental (LLNO), a group of individuals who believe in the advocacy of the Vice President to address the ill-effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Inspired by many initiatives in various parts of the country, the group plans to feed children in Negros Occidental, particularly in the community that has a high number of malnourished children due to the pandemic, their spokesperson Pinky Mirano Ocampo said.
The kick-off feeding activity at Sitio Sumbingco, one of the far-off geographic clusters, about 3 km from the barangay center with more than 700 population, 57 percent of which are children.
Robredo and her running mate, Senator Francis Pangilinan, joined the blessing and inauguration of the Leni-Kiko Negros Headquarters on Hernaez Street in Bacolod.
The headquarters was set up by the Leni for Negros group headed by former Negros Occidental governor Rafael Coscolluela.