MANILA – Five mayors were asked to explain by the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) regarding their coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination.
DILG issued show-cause orders to Mayor Alfred Romualdez of Tacloban City, Mayor Dibu Tuan of T’boli town in South Cotabato, Mayor Sulpicio Villalobos of Sto. Niño town in South Cotabato, Mayor Noel Rosal of Legazpi City in Albay, and Mayor Abraham Ibba of Bataraza town in Palawan.
Romualdez, the first local chief executive to receive COVID-19 vaccine, came under fire for having been vaccinated while the medical frontliners are the government’s priority of the vaccination rollout.
However, he defended that he was forced to be inoculated because only 85 out of 160 health workers at the city hospital agreed to receive the Sinovac BioNTech’s vaccine.
The mayor further said that after he was vaccinated, several health workers in their city participated in the inoculation program.
“After I was inoculated, the 350 people who chose to get the vaccine became 790,” Romualdez said. “Gahol na sa oras. Kaya ako naghihintay. Sabi ko sa kanila: ‘Sayang ito.”
Malacañang, meanwhile, said the move of the mayors to have themselves vaccinated first with COVID jabs could impact future deliveries from the COVAX facility, which said healthworkers should be the top priority.
“We regret this incident, but I will refer the matter to the DILG dahil kinakailangan po talagang imbestigahan ito,” said Roque. “Violation of the rule iyan ng COVAX Facility.”/PN
