In a bid to vaccinate workers in the city to revive the local economy, the city government of Marikina has inked a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with a homegrown private company in the city.
Marikina City Mayor Marcelino “Marcy” Teodoro forged the agreement with Angel’s Burger president Carlo Angelo Mojica during a MOA signing ceremony at the Marikina Sports Park (MSP) on Thursday (May 27).
Under the MOA, the Angel’s Burger Foundation will procure the COVID-19 vaccines and the local government will store them in the city’s cold storage facility.
The city will also be the one administering the vaccines to workers through their vaccination teams.
“Hindi ito katulad ng sa ibang LGUs (local government units) na contractual ang relationship. Ito ay sa pamamagitan ng isang partnership or engagement kung saan tutulong ang private sectors sa pagbibigay ng bakuna (Unlike other LGUs, its relationship is not contractual. This will be executed through a partnership or engagement wherein the private sector will help provide the vaccines),” the mayor told the media.
“At isa pang malaking maitutulong ng private sector kagaya ng sa Angel’s Burger na sila ang mag-a-identify ng mga manggagawa nila na nais magpabakuna, at ang mga ayaw magpabakuna ay sila na rin ang gumagawa ng pagkumbinse at ibayong pagpapaliwanag sa kahalagahan ng bakuna (And one big help that the private sector can do, like Angel’s Burger, is that they are the ones identifying their employees who want to get inoculated, and for those who do not want to get vaccinated, the company will urge their workers and explain to them the importance of vaccines).”
For his part, the president of Angel’s Burger pledged P1 million worth of vaccines to the local government of Marikina.
“Sa ngayon ang aming naipangako kay mayor ay at least P1 million worth of COVID-19 vaccines ng Angel’s Burger sa Marikina government. Para po iyan sa mga residente ng Marikina (For now, what I could pledge to Mayor Marcy is at least P1 million worth of COVID-19 vaccines of Angel’s Burger to the Marikina government. That is for the people of Marikina),” he said.
“Kawawa naman po iyong mga manggagawa kung everytime na may mag-positive lahat sila ay madadamay. Two weeks of salary po ang nawawala sa kanila (It is saddening to think that workers’ salaries get cut every time they test positive. They are losing two weeks’ worth of their salary).”
Teodoro emphasized the importance of immediately vaccinating economic frontliners so that the economy could quickly recover from the economic impacts brought by the pandemic.
“Mahalaga na agarang mabakunahan ang mga manggagawa o ang mga kabilang sa A4 category (It is very important that workers or those who belong to the A4 category to be immediately inoculated). They should be immunized for their welfare and for the sake of our economy,)” he said.
Aside from workers, Teodoro said that people who lost their jobs amid the pandemic should also be inoculated immediately in order for them to quickly land a job for their families.
Also present during the event were representatives of Lamp Quarters, Pan de Amerikana, Hapag Kainan, and St. Scholastica signified their support to the city government of Marikina.