Gen. Guillermo Lorenzo T. Eleazar, chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP), ordered all police commanders to use the community patrol and official police social media accounts to assist in the information dissemination campaign aimed at convincing more Filipinos to be vaccinated against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

Elesazar's order was buoyed by his own experience when he was still the commander of the PNP Administrative Support for COVID-19 Task Force (ASCOTF) wherein the information drive they launched for the more than 220,000 PNP personnel led to the significant increase on those who wanted to avail of the vaccination.

From 51 percent of the total PNP strength who wanted to be vaccinated, the figure rose to the current 84 percent and Eleazar attributed it to the aggressive information drive through an app-based system in the PNP which is accessible to all PNP personnel.

The PNP-ASCOTF used fact sheets and videos from the Department of Health in the formation drive,

“Ito ang gusto nating i-replicate sa ating mga komunidad para mas lalong dumami ang makumbinsi na magpa-bakuna. Importante ito dahil nakasalalay sa bakuna ang pagbabalik natin sa normal na gaya nang nakita natin sa Israel at sa iba pang bansa (This is what we want to replicate in our community in order to convince more people to get vaccinated. Vaccination is important becauase this would lead us back to normal like what we have seen in Israel and other countries),” said Eleazar.

The Chief PNP particularly cited the PNP's OPLAN Bandillo as a good platform to educate the public about the benefits of COVID-19 vaccination.

OPLAN Bandillo is a community awareness and information dissemination program against criminal elements and was eventually used to encourage people to observe the minimum health safety standard protocol since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In implementing OPLAN Bandillo, local police forces use megaphones and speaker system during their regular beat patrol to communicate with people in the community.

A few days ago, the Social Weather Station released a survey result stating that only 51 percent of Filipinos have trust and confidence on the government's vaccination program.

"As a former ASCOTF commander, I personally witnessed the importance of information drive. If we were able to do it in the PNP, I am sure that it can be done in the communities," said Eleazar.

Aside from OPLAN Bandillo, Eleazar said that the PNP social media accounts down to the local police stations can be used as a platform for the information campaign aimed at convincing more people to trust the vaccination program.
Vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr earlier said that the government is targeting the vaccination of essential workers and indigent Filipinos by next month as more vaccine supplies arrived in the country in the past days.