Presidential spokesman Harry Roque
Presidential spokesman Harry Roque warns mayors in the country to stop skipping into the vaccination line and follow the vaccine priority list.
In a virtual press briefing, on Mar. 25, 2021, Roque warned that the country might lose at least 40 million vaccine vials allocated by the Vaccines Global Access (COVAX) Facility to the Philippines if mayors continue to jump the vaccination line.
The COVAX facility is under the World Health Organization (WHO).
“Uulitin ko po ‘no, mga mayor, tama na po iyan ha. Kapag iyan ay nagpatuloy, 44 million ang dosages ng COVAX Facility vaccines ang pupuwedeng mawala sa atin (To all the mayors, stop it already. If you continue skipping the line, we would lose about 44 million dosages of COVAX Facility vaccines). So please, we ask for your indulgence,” Roque said.
This comes as there are some mayors in the country including three from Bohol who, reportedly, have been inoculated even if the vaccine supply provided so far, is meant, for medical frontliners.
President Duterte on March 24, 2021, in a televised speech to the nation, identified San Miguel mayor Virgilio Mendez, Lila mayor Arturo Piollo II and Alicia mayor Victoriano Torres as the ones among several mayors in other areas who got inoculated with the Covid jab.
Roque made the statement a day after the president described the inoculation of mayors as a “gray area”.
Reports say that the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) issued show-cause orders to mayors Alfred Romualdez (Tacloban City, Leyte), Dibu Tuan (T’boli, South Cotabato), Sulpicio Villalobos (Sto Niño, South Cotabato), Noel Rosal (Legazpi, Albay), and Abraham Ibba (Bataraza, Palawan) after getting inoculated with vaccine while the supply is meant for medical frontliners.
Duterte also mentioned the name of Elanito Peña of Minglanilla, Cebu, as one of the mayors who reportedly jumped into the queue and received the Covid jab.
Roque says that while the President understands why the mayors received the vaccines, the reality remains that the said mayors did something wrong.