Malacañang said the government's immunization experts may change their minds about vaccinating influencers against the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) once the country has more vaccines in stock.
Presidential spokesman Harry Roque made the statement after the interim National Immunization Technical Advisory Group (iNITAG) thumbed down the proposal of the Inter-agency Task Force (IATF) for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases to allocate CoronaVac shots to 50 influencers to boost the public's confidence in the vaccine.
In an interview with Radio Mindanao Network (RMN), Roque said the proposal was thumbed down because the Philippines was only working with 600,000 doses of CoronaVac vaccines.
He added that iNIATG might give the go signal if there are more vaccine shots to spare.
"Sa ngayon po, siguro kasi 600,000 pa lang ang dumarating eh hindi pa po pinayagan (Maybe it's because we only have 600,000 doses that why the iNITAG thumbed down the proposal for now)," he said Wednesday morning, March 3.
"Pero tingnan po natin baka naman kapag dumating na ang mas maraming supply eh baka matuloy pa rin po iyong ating proposal (But I think when more of our orders arrive, maybe they will approve the proposal)," he added.
The government wants to vaccinate public officials and movie personalities, among others, to boost vaccine confidence among the public. However, the iNITAG was firm about inoculating the country's health workers first.
The country rolled out its vaccination program on March 1 using the 600,000 CoronaVac shots donated by the Chinese government. CoronaVac is manufactured by Sinovac.
The Philippines is expecting 1 million more doses from Sinovac and 525,600 doses from AstraZeneca. Both batches are expected to arrive this month. Roque said he welcomes the decision of the iNITAG.
"I agree naman with the decision, hindi na tayo umaalma at naghihintay na lang tayo ng ating turn kumbaga (I agree with the decision. I won't protest it and I'll just wait for my turn)," he said.
Roque has repeatedly expressed his willingness to be among the first people to be vaccinated to encourage the public to take the vaccine.