At least 50 ex-red rebels to get jabs in Mindanao
MANILA: At least 50 former members of the communist New People’s Army (NPA), including their families, have accepted the government offer for coronavirus vaccination jabs in Mindanao, according to a ranking military officer.
Major General Romeo Brawner, the chief of the Army’s 4th Infantry Division, said the vaccination jabs were in line with his commitment to help protect the NPA insurgents who surrendered to the government from COVID-19 and their families.
Most of the recipients, Brawner said, came from the Northern Mindanao and Caraga regions, which were under the jurisdiction of his command. He explained he made the offer ater his men killed an NPA rebel and captured seven others during a recent encounter in Bukidnon province.
The rebel killed and his seven comrades captured had tested positive for the virus following their encounter in a “barangay” (village) in the town of San Francisco, Bukidnon on Sept.8, according to Brawner.
“Many in the NPA ranks,” he said, “possibly have COVID-19 as evidenced by the positive test results of the captured rebels and their slain companion. I would like to inform them that COVID-19 does not choose who it infects.”
In particular, Brawner pointed out that Bukidnon has seen a surge in infections which experts blamed on the deadly and virulent Delta variant of COVID-19, first detected in India but which has emerged as the dominant strain in the Philippines.
On Tuesday, health officials said they logged 304 new cases in Bukidnon, which accounted for 45 per cent of Northern Mindanao’s confirmed infections for that day. Officials warned that, if let uncontrolled, the spike threatened to overwhelm the healthcare systems in Bukidnon but also in the other areas in Northern Mindanao.
According to Brawner, he shared the vaccines allocated to his command in giving shots to the former NPA rebels and their families. He said his officers co-ordinated with the mayors of local government units in giving the COVID-19 jabs to the recipients.