CHR: VIPs who skipped vaccination line ‘selfishly’ deprived healthcare workers of jabs
MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Human Rights on Thursday warned that jumping the country's priority list for vaccination deprives healthcare workers of badly-needed jabs and imperils the country's inoculation program.
The CHR said this in response to "reports of public personalities, government officials, and non-frontliners jumping the vaccination queue meant for health care workers."
"As it stands, the Philippines has a limited number of vaccines allocated for medical frontliners," the commission's spokesperson Jacqueline de Guia said.
"Individuals excluded from the priority list that jump the vaccination queue selfishly deprives health care workers of much-need vaccines and jeopardizes succeeding, agreed upon, free vaccine allocations from the COVAX facility, which calls for the priority inoculation of agreed-upon groups."
Under the government's rollout plan, only some 1.7 million healthcare workers should currently have access to the vaccines.
However, the following mayors have already received their doses, per a list read out by President Rodrigo Duterte during a public address Tuesday night:
- Alfred Romualdez (Tacloban City, Leyte)
- Dibu Tuan (T'boli, South Cotabato)
- Sulpicio Villalobos (Sto. Niño, South Cotabato)
- Noel Rosal (Legazpi City, Albay)
- Abraham Ibba (Bataraza, Palawan)
- Elanito Peña of (Minglanilla, Cebu)
- Victoriano Torres (Alicia, Bohol)
- Virgilio Mendez (San Miguel, Bohol)
- Mayor Arturo Piollo II (Lila, Bohol)
Actor Mark Anthony Fernandez was also vaccinated in Parañaque City.
The CHR said it supports efforts from the interior and health departments to investigate the violators and hold them to account.
After reading their names aloud, Duterte warned the local executives that they would face charges for malversation of funds.
But it was the chief executive himself who first excused unauthorized inoculations and the jumping of the priority list in the country. After revealing that members of his security detail were vaccinated with Sinopharm jabs, Duterte barred investigations on the matter and threatened a "constitutional crisis" when lawmakers tried to push the issue.
"We continue to stress that an effective national vaccination strategy is a vital component of an efficient national health care program, and is an important component of the equitable distribution of vaccines," CHR said.
— Bella Perez-Rubio
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