Former Speaker Taguig-Pateros Rep. Alan Peter Cayetano has called on Filipinos to avoid getting distracted by current talks about the death penalty, Charter change, and the party-list system as he stressed the importance of discussing plans and efforts to keep the country’s population safe from the COVID-19 pandemic through vaccination.
Cayetano said people and leaders of the nation should keep their “eyes on the ball,” referring to the bid to make the COVID-19 vaccine readily accessible to the whole population.
“Importante ba ang tatlong iyon o iyong vaccination? Are those three more important than vaccination?” Cayetano asked.
In the past several days, public attention has shifted from to discussions about the death penalty, Charter change, and the party-list system.
Senators revived the death penalty talks in an apparent reaction to the Christine Dacera case. Police probers have claimed that the 23-year-old flight attendant was raped and killed during a New Year’s party in a Makati City hotel.
However, Makati Chief Prosecutor Dindo Venturanza ruled that the case warrants further investigation as medico legal findings showed no clear evidence that Dacera had indeed been sexually abused before being killed.
The filing of a Charter change resolution by Senators Francis Tolentino and Roland “Bato” de la Rosa triggered debates on the issue.
Speaker Lord Allan Velasco backed the bid to amend the 1987 Constitution but insisted that changes should be limited to the economic provisions.
Senate President Vicente Sotto III disclosed that President Duterte wanted Congress to amend the party-list system in order to block party-list groups from using it in helping enemies of the State.
Sotto had earlier filed a bill proposing the grant of a 25-year legislative franchise to ABS-CBN which had already been rejected in the House.
Cayetano said the country has lagged behind the race for access to the vaccine, adding that unless everybody has his eyes on the ball, there is a likelihood that hopes to give the vaccine early and to a big part of the population may disappear.
He cited as an example the restoration of the death penalty which has been strongly opposed by Church leaders.
Cayetano said that it would have been more ideal if religious leaders are to concentrate their participation in national debates on the vaccine agenda.
“Lahat ng ibang bansa nagsisimula nang magbakuna, tayo nagro-roadmap pa lang (While many countries have started to inoculate, we are still in the roadmap stage),” Cayetano noted.
He lamented that while some VIPs have already been vaccinated, the same privilege have evaded health frontliners.