Members of the House of Representatives should take advantage of the two-month Lenten break to take part in the government’s COVID-19 vaccination campaign in their respective congressional districts, Camarines Sur Representative Luis Raymund "LRay" Villafuerte said on Monday, March 29.
Villafuerte made the call after the Department of Health (DOH) reported 10,016 new infections on Monday, a new record-high single-day increase since the pandemic reached the country.
The solon noted that the latest tracking polls show that a majority of Filipinos are still not willing to get inoculated against COVID-19.
“Legislators should make use of the almost two-month Lenten break of Congress to initiate or take part in the information campaigns in their respective congressional districts about the government’s drive to immunize our people against COVID-19,” Villanueva said in a statement.
“Especially now, when the latest polls reveal that three out of every five Filipino adults hesitate or are not willing to get their jabs against the highly infectious coronavirus,” he added.
He said it is imperative that lawmakers be at the forefront of the government’s efforts to convince adult Filipinos that the vaccines against COVID-19 are safe and that mass inoculation is necessary to contain the prolonged pandemic.
“And that achieving herd immunity via immunization is the only way for us to boost business confidence and consumer spending, which in turn, could set off a quick and strong recovery from the coronavirus-driven global recession,” he said.
Lawmakers, he also appealed, should take steps to help keep the government’s target to immunize 100 percent of the country’s adult population of about 70 million on track.
Villafuerte said that while Malacañang should be lauded for taking decisive steps to secure enough funding for the procurement of additional COVID-19 vaccines, such efforts would go to waste should many Filipinos remain hesitant to get vaccinated.
The national government, Congress and the private sector should work together in reversing the prevailing vaccine hesitancy among Filipinos especially at this time when there are new and more transmissible COVID-19 variants, he said.
“The OCTA Research group fret that the daily infection rate could go up to an alarming 12,000 to 13,000 in Metro Manila, the anti-COVID task force has implemented stricter mobility restrictions and hospitals are getting full with coronavirus patients,” said the lawmaker.
“And I am flummoxed by the fact that all that the House leadership seems to be thinking of at this time is to keep the Speaker’s Cha-cha (Charter change) initiative on overdrive,” Villafuerte lamented.
The former Camarines Sur governor earlier appealed to House Speaker Lord Allan Velasco to quit pushing for Charter change and instead convince legislators to participate in the Duterte administration’s inoculation program in their respective districts.
Villafuerte believed that pushing for Charter change would only be a futile exercise since the Senate leadership has refused to take up the measure as a priority amid the pandemic.