DILG to Cebu LGU: Stop bakuna perks

MANILA, Philippines — Acting Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama should revoke his executive order (EO) allowing vaccinated individuals to dine in and be served at salons and spas, according to Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Undersecretary Epimaco Densing.

“We’ll have to coordinate with the mayor to recant and amend that EO. There are more than a number of mayors who did that and we asked them to recant,” Densing told ”The Chiefs” on Cignal TV’s OneNews/TV5 on Wednesday night.

Densing said local government units could not implement any policy that would restrict movement of non-vaccinated individuals and give leeway to those who have received their COVID vaccine.

“It cannot happen right now. The government cannot implement such a policy. The Department of Justice has given its opinion that until everyone is given the opportunity to be vaccinated, we cannot impose bakuna bubbles,” Densing said.

Rama said even those who have at least one dose of COVID vaccine are entitled to the incentive under EO 138, which he issued on Sept. 2.

However, Densing said the DILG could not yet allow the proposed “vaccine bubble.”

He said local chief executives who would not comply would be summoned.

The DILG had earlier asked the Guimaras provincial government to amend its “no vaccine, no work policy” and  the “no vaccine, no entry rule” in Lapu-Lapu City.

Densing said there was still no legal guidance on whether the private sector could implement similar measures even as he stressed that there is no such government policy at this time.

Presidential adviser for entrepreneurship and Go Negosyo founder Joey Concepcion said the bakuna bubble should be tested in an area with a high vaccination rate.

Concepcion said he is hopeful that Metro Manila could start the implementation of the bubble, citing Cebu City as model.

NEDA supports bubble

National Economic and Development Authority chief Karl Kendrick Chua said he supports the pilot test of the vaccine bubble.

“I would like to know what works and what doesn’t work. I would support the pilot of that,” Chua said at the continuation of the briefing of the Development Budget Coordination Committee on the proposed 2022 budget at the Senate.

“For instance, we start at 10 percent capacity, 20 percent and so on. I would not start with 50 percent or 100 percent,” he said. – Cecille Suerte Felipe