A Palace official hailed on Monday, Nov. 29 the unrelenting efforts of health frontliners in the face of the ongoing coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.

Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Secretary Martin Andanar praised the frontliners on the first day of the much-publicized three-day national vaccination drive.

“Indeed, they have taken their duty and obligation seriously and fervently served during this pandemic, and all of us who have benefited from it have our own responsibility to ensure that we help protect each other in our own way," Andanar said of the health workers in his speech.

"A way to make a sizable contribution to this collective effort is by participating in our national COVID-19 vaccination program," said the official, who was in Cagayan de Oro Monday for the launch of the three-day ‘Bayanihan, Bakunahan’ event.

Bayanihan, Bakunahan is a nationwide simultaneous event which aims to administer at least nine million jabs across the country and scale up the vaccination output of local government units (LGUs) from Nov. 29 to Dec. 1, 2021.

According to data from the Department of Health (DOH), 36 percent of Northern Mindanao’s 3.5 million vaccine-eligible population are now fully immunized against COVID-19, while 63 percent of the population have already received their first dose.

Andanar noted that through this initiative, the Duterte Administration has demonstrated its firm commitment to bring public service, especially the COVID-19 vaccines closer to all Filipinos.

“The Duterte administration has successfully made vaccinations available and closer to each one of us, and all of us should take that responsibility not only for our own safety, but also that of our loved ones, neighbors, and the frontliners, who made these initiatives possible,” he said.

“With our national vaccination program, we have seen its positive impacts not only in saving lives, such as experiencing lower COVID-19 positivity rate recently, but also restarting our economy, such as seeing at least 7 percent in GDP (gross domestic product) growth for the third quarter of this year, and all other aspects of our nation that have greatly been impacted by this virus,” he added.