Bongbong Marcos to DILG, DOH: Do another booster rollout before school opens
PEDIATRIC VACCINATION A boy reacts with his eyes as he is administered a COVID-19 vaccine dose during an inoculation drive in Marikina in March 2022. INQUIRER file photo / GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE
MANILA, Philippines — To prepare for the resumption of full in-person classes by November, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has directed the Department of Health (DOH) and the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) to pursue another rollout of COVID-19 booster shots.
Marcos earlier unveiled his administration’s plan to bolster the campaign for COVID-19 booster uptake in the country.
“We must ensure that our classrooms are safe for teachers, for students, and the entire academic community when they return to face-to-face classes,” he said in his first State of the Nation Address (Sona) on Monday. “This is one of the reasons I have directed the DOH and the DILG to undertake another rollout of booster shots.”
READ: Bongbong Marcos backs anti-COVID booster shot for school kids as full in-person classes loom
Marcos later noted that the administration had recently pursued a more straightforward and more feasible separation of functions between the national and local governments.
To further augment the administration’s plan for all schools to return to face-to-face classes, he also fleshed out their plans to improve the condition and availability of classrooms with the help of the Department of Public Works and Highways.
“Though some complications have arisen over the question of repair of school buildings in relation to the Mandanas-Garcia-ruling, those will be ironed out,” he promised.
The Mandanas-Garcia ruling, which stemmed from a 2013 petition forwarded to the Supreme Court by then Batangas Governor Hermilando Mandanas and former Bataan Governor Enrique Garcia Jr., fully transfers or devolves the delivery of basic services to LGUs.
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