President Rodrigo Duterte appealed for a house-to-house anti-COVID-19 vaccination program on Tuesday, particularly in rural areas, since millions of vaccine doses will expire in the coming months.
Earlier, presidential adviser for entrepreneurship Joey Concepcion announced that 27 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine would expire in July.
“The vaccines are here and ready to be utilized, just in case. A good number ng mga Filipinos remaining, refusing to be vaccinated. Wala na tayong magawa,” Duterte said.
“The most we can do, last minute program, is we embark on a program i-deliver natin ang vaccines sa bahay-bahay sa bukid,” he added.
Duterte requested that New People’s Army (NPA) not hurt healthcare personnel doing house-to-house inoculations in remote locations.
“Kayong mga NPA, ‘wag niyong barahin ang mga taong aakyat dyan, especially the health workers,” Duterte said.
“Sa totoo lang on grounds of humanity eh kung gusto niyo magpabakuna ipasali ko kayo pero huwag ninyong, do not derail the program that is what I am trying to tell you,” the president added.
Meanwhile, Senator Franklin Drilon, the minority leader in the Senate, has criticized the administration for the looming waste of vaccination doses that are about to expire.
“More than two years into the pandemic, the IATF still manages to mismanage the government’s response to the pandemic. It is unconscionable that the vaccines that were purchased through loans could end up in the garbage,” Drilon said.
Duterte eyes house-to-house COVID-19 vaccination
“It is criminal neglect if they let that happen. I’d like to remind the DOH and the IATF that it is Juan dela Cruz who will pay for these vaccines,” he added.
The procurement of COVID-19 vaccinations, according to the minority leader, was one of the reasons why the Philippines’ debt stock grew from P9 trillion to P12 trillion in February 2022.
If each dose costs P500, Drilon estimates that the Philippines will waste P13.5 billion if the 27 million vaccines expire.
On Tuesday night, Duterte stated that the government purchased immunizations in proportion to the population’s needs.
“Alam mo, ang bakuna nandiyan para sa lahat ng Pilipino. In-order natin ‘yan,” Duterte said.
“Ngayon, kung may mga Pilipino na marami pang hindi nakapagbakuna o
ayaw magpabakuna, hindi naman kasalanan ng gobyerno na magbili tayo
commensurate to the number of Filipinos that would be vaccinated sana,” he added.
“There’s no excess actually, binili natin yan, we will try to maximize vaccines. Kung ‘di magamit itatapon talaga natin ‘yan,” Duterte said.
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