The government will be “flexible” in the COVID-19 vaccination of people under the A4 and A5 category, Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said on Tuesday, May 25, stressing that its “guiding principle” is to vaccinate as many people as possible.

Vaccine rollout for the A4 category, which includes essential workers, will soon begin in what the government calls the National Capital Region Plus (NCR Plus). The region covers Metro Manila and nearby provinces of Bulacan, Laguna, Rizal, and Cavite.

“We will be flexible. Ang ating guiding principle mas maraming mabakunahan mas mabuti (Our guiding principle is that the more people we vaccinate, the better),” Roque said during his virtual presser.

While the A4 category in the government’s vaccine priority list refers to workers in the essential sector and uniformed personnel, the A5 category includes the indigent population.

The Palace official noted that there will be “overlaps” in both categories. For example, drivers and vendors are considered essential workers but they could also fall under the indigent population.

For his part, testing czar Vince Dizon said that they will give “flexibility” to local government chief executives to determine who will be included in the A5 category.

READ: https://mb.com.ph/2021/05/19/metro-lgus-set-to-vaccinate-a4-priority-sector-mmc/

The initial basis of the A5 category are those included in the government’s 4P (Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program) program, which provides conditional cash grants to the poorest of the poor to improve their health, nutrition, and the education of the children.

“Kasama na rin diyan ang mga kasambahay at iba pang mga populasyon na mahihirap pero not necessarily nasama sa 4Ps (That also includes the household helpers and other population that are poor but not necessarily part of the 4Ps),” Dizon said.

The spokesperson agreed that the 4P list is “not exclusive” and that other informal jobs such as household helpers will be considered indigents, too.

Roque said that since the Kasambahay Law was passed, employers are required to provide their household helpers Social Security System (SSS) and PhilHealth benefits. These will prove that they are a part of the indigent population.

“At siguro po iyon ang pruweba na pupwedeng ipakita (Maybe this is the prove that they can show). This is without prejudice po dun sa iba pang mahihirap dahil alam po natin hindi naman po lahat ay nakalista po sa 4Ps (to others who are also poor because we know that not everyone is listed in the 4Ps),” he added.

Most of the areas under the NCR Plus bubble are vaccinating the A3 category or people with co-morbidities. The next batch of vaccine deliveries is supposedly set for the A4 and A5 categories, with the former bound to help reopen the economy.