ROBREDO SEEKS ACCESS TO PH VACCINE SUPPLY
Vice President Leni Robredo on Sunday said it would be a “great help” if her office could be given access to the country’s vaccine supply, after Malacañang welcomed her initiative for a vaccine drive-through program in city governments.
During her weekly radio show, Robredo said several local governments had already requested the Office of the Vice President (OVP) to bring the Vaccine Express program to their cities, after the OVP successfully staged a similar drive in Manila two weeks ago.
The initiative was meant to make the government’s inoculation program more accessible to those who were most vulnerable to COVID-19. It targets, among others, economic front-liners like tricycle drivers, motorcycle and delivery riders and street vendors who may not have access to the government’s registration programs or do not have time to wait for their appointments.
The project is propped up by both public and private efforts, including the UBE Express, Smart and health-care workers who joined the OVP’s Bayanihan e-Konsulta program. But the doses administered for the program are part of the partnering city’s supplies.
As such, the OVP mostly provides logistical support (the health workers administering the shots, among others) for the express.
Deputy Speaker Rufus Rodriguez earlier dared her to bring the same project to Cagayan de Oro and other local governments in the Visayas and Mindanao region, where COVID-19 cases are seeing a spike.
But Robredo noted that the vaccine supply in the National Capital Region is starkly different from those in the provinces.
“It would be a big deal to get access to the [country’s vaccine supply],” Robredo said. “If the [local government] cannot provide their own supply, we cannot do anything because we also don’t have access.”
“Getting access would at least make it much more easier for us,” she noted. “We’re not even asking for more funds.”
Meanwhile, the National Bureau of Investigation is probing more deeply into the sources of the COVID-19 vaccines illegally sold and those people involved, according to Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra.
Guevarra made the assurance following the arrest of three persons in Manila caught illegally selling COVID-19 vaccines by the NBI’s Task Force Against Illegal Drugs on June 30.