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Robredo: gov't must ensure PH vax cards are accepted in HK, everywhere
Robredo: gov't must ensure PH vax cards are accepted in HK, everywhere
Without a unified database for vaccine recipients in the country, Hong Kong’s initial decision not to honor the vaccination cards of Filipinos is “bound to happen,” Vice President Leni Robredo said on Sunday, August 15.
During her weekly radio show, Robredo criticized the government for being ill-prepared in creating the database before rolling out the country’s vaccination program.
“Bound to happen iyon talaga kung hindi natin napagplanuhan at the early stage na magkaroon talaga (That is really bound to happy if we did not plan at the early stage to have it),” she said. She called for urgent and fast government action to address this problem.
The vice president stressed the need to issue vaccination certificates right after the second dose.
Last week, Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. said that Hong Kong will not honor the vaccination cards issued by the Philippine government to returning overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) because the cards did not come from one source.
Locsin, however, expressed confidence that the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) will be able to come up with a system for ensuring that vaccination cards issued to Filipinos are globally accepted.
Latest Hong Kong media reports also indicate that the authorities are working with Philippine officials so that the reentry of thousands of Filipino domestic workers may be facilitated. The pandemic has created a shortage of domestic workers in Hong Kong.
The vaccination cards issued to Filipinos are dependent on the local government unit (LGU). Only a handful of LGUs like Quezon City has attached a seal on the card as proof of authenticity.
Some 3,000 OFWs who are bound to return to Hong Kong as China’s administrative region lifts the travel ban will be impacted by the policy.
READ: 3,000 OFWs can't be deployed to Hong Kong until gov't rolls out vax cards
Robredo said Filipinos were lucky that some countries were not as strict as Hong Kong with regards to the proof of vaccination.
The lady official suggested that the government must act “this early” to decentralize the issuance of the vaccination certificate so Filipinos won’t need to go to the Bureau of Quarantine (BOQ) to apply for the yellow card or the proof of vaccination other countries are requiring.
Robredo said that the BOQ should work with LGUs to develop a system that will issue a certificate of vaccination right after the second dose.
“Pwede naman iyong Bureau of Quarantine pa din ang nag-i-issue pero hindi na iyong lahat na nagpapabakuna lahat siya mag-aapply ng hiwalay sa Bureau of Quarantine. Kasi sa akin dinodoble natin iyong trabaho (The Bureau of Quarantine can still be the one to issue but those who got vaccinated should not need to apply directly to the Bureau of Quarantine. Because for me, we are being redundant),” she stressed.
READ: PH calls for universal vaccine cards; OFWs urged to get ‘yellow cards’ for now
“Ang suggestion ko lang habang patuloy pa din iyong pagpapabakuna, gawin na ito. Bigay na anong card iyong acceptable internationally dun na bigay (My suggestion is while we’re vaccinating, let’s do this already. Give the card whatever’s acceptable internationally, give it there already).”
It will take months before the bureau can verify each application, the vice president noted, so there should be a “sense of urgency.”
As early as last year before the vaccines arrived in the country, Robredo already called on the government to develop a system once the rollout of the vaccines starts. This includes a database for all vaccine recipients.
The lack of a database is creating gaps in the program and allowing some Filipinos to receive a “booster” despite this not being part of the country’s protocol yet.