BY DOMINIQUE GABRIEL BAÑAGA
BACOLOD City – Mayor Melecio “Beboy” Yap Jr. of Escalante City, Negros Occidental is ready to go to jail for having been vaccinated against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
“I took the risk,” he said, to encourage residents of his city to have themselves vaccinated against coronavirus.
The Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) announced it would be issuing show-cause orders (SCOs) to local chief executives (LCEs) inoculated against COVID-19 ahead of priority populations.
Yap said he has not received any SCO yet.
He took the vaccine despite lingering doubts on CoronaVac, the vaccine made my China’s Sinovac Biotech, because he wanted to be a good example to the people of Escalante City, he stressed.
Yesterday, Interior undersecretary Epimaco Densing revealed that Mayor Alfred Romualdez of Tacloban City, Leyte; Mayor Dibu Tuan of T’boli, South Cotabato; Mayor Sulpicio Villalobos of Sto. Niño, South Cotabato; Mayor Noel Rosal of Legazpi City, Albay; and Mayor Abraham Ibba of Bataraza, Palawan have been issued SOCs for allegedly hopping ahead of the priority populations for COVID-19 vaccination.
Yap was the first local chief executive (LCE) in Negros Occidental – and second in Western Visayas – to be vaccinated against the disease.
On March 18, Bacolod City’s Mayor Evelio Leonardia announced that the National Inter-Agency Task Force approved their request to classify LCEs among the priorities for vaccination.
LCEs are frontliners, too, in the fight against COVID-19, he said./PN
