Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. has encouraged local government units (LGUs) to craft local ordinances to ensure people will get vaccines regardless of brands, a move which will make coronavirus disease (COVID-19) immunization as mandatory.
Galvez revealed that the National Vaccination Operations Center (NVOC) will be issuing a memorandum which contains a list of “incentives” for vaccinated people and “disincentives” for those unvaccinated “to address the issue of vaccine hesitancy.”
The vaccine czar also called on the governors, mayors, and barangay captains to make local ordinances that will support the “no vaccine preference” policy so that all the excess vaccines in the government’s stockpile will be utilized.
“This will be a preview as we push for mandatory vaccination especially of those who are highly vulnerable and residents who live in high density populations,” Galvez said in a statement on Saturday, Nov. 6.
Out of the total 110 million COVID-19 vaccines that have arrived since February, there are around 47 million doses in the government’s warehouses, according to data from NVOC.
President Duterte has already ordered the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) to monitor the vaccination program at the local level and ensure it is being done “at the most expeditious manner” so the vaccines will go to the people and not to waste.
The Chief Executive also tapped the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to lend their aerial assets to the National Task Force so that the vaccines can be deployed to far-flung and geographically isolated provinces.
“We will incentivize LGUs with high accomplishments and give sanctions to those underperforming, especially in the distribution and administration of these life-saving doses,” Galvez said.
For its part, the Department of Health (DOH) previously said that COVID-19 vaccination shall not be made mandatory, citing the personal preference of every individual, although it encourages the public to get vaccinated so they and the people around them can be protected against preventable diseases.