MANILA – The national government played a “cruel joke” when it announced the inoculation of essential workers even with concerns over vaccine supply, former Vice President Jejomar Binay said Friday.
In a series of tweets, Binay claimed that many essential workers flocked to vaccination centers but were not inoculated due to insufficient vaccine supply.
“Why did the national government announce it would be vaccinating essential workers when the vaccine supply is not enough? Kulang na kulang pa ang bakuna. Dumagsa ang maraming essential workers sa vaccination centers at marami ang hindi nabakunahan. In short, pinaasa lang,” Binay said.
“The government played a cruel joke on workers who desperately need to find work, get back to work to feed their families, or be protected while working. It’s another government publicity stunt at the workers’ expense,” he added.
Binay reiterated his call to allow the private sector to purchase vaccines directly from suppliers or manufacturers.
“Let’s turn this over to the private sector. Let them vaccinate their employees and give incentives for companies and employees,” Binay said.
“We have been under a state of emergency since last year. Yet there seems to be no sense of urgency and out of the box thinking. If we really want to re-open the economy, there should be no room for red tape and government control,” he added.
The national government has begun the inoculation of frontline workers. Government estimates show there are 35.5 million workers in the identified essential sectors.
Data as of June 6, 2021 showed that 5.95 million COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered in the country, with 4.4 million of them as first doses. A total of 1.54 million Filipinos are fully vaccinated.(©Philippine Daily Inquirer 2021)
