BACOLOD City – Mayor Evelio Leonardia lauded the decision of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) to include local chief executives (LCEs) in the priority population for vaccination against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
“It’s good news,” Leonardia said. “The National IATF has just approved our request to classify LCEs among the priorities.”
Leonardia, the national president of the League of Cities of the Philippines (LCP), said the development means that the 1,634 provincial governors, city and municipal mayors, as well as the 42,046 barangay chairmen all over the country will be classified as essential workers under Priority Group A4.
Based on the IATF-EID guidelines, healthcare workers in both national and local, and private and public facilities are included in Priority Group “A1” along with health professionals and non-professionals like students, nursing aides, janitors, and barangay health workers.
Senior citizens are listed under Priority Group “A2,” while persons with comorbidities are under Priority Group “A3.”
“We salute Interior Undersecretary Epimaco Densing for the very quick response because it was only on March 13 during his visit to Bacolod when as national president of the LCP, I appealed to him to elevate this matter to the IATF,” Leonardia said, adding that Silay City’s mayor Mark Golez, who is also an LCP official, supported the proposition.
He pointed out that in reality, the LCEs are also frontliners in the fight against COVID-19.
“We are sure this development will inspire and encourage LCEs to even work harder and more effectively in the implementation of our COVID-19 program, considering that we are now accelerating our efforts to vaccinate as many of our people and as fast as possible,” Leonardia added.(PNA)
