Sorsogon Governor Chiz Escudero today called on the Department of Health (DOH) and the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases to be transparent and fair in its allocation and distribution of the COVID-19 vaccines nationwide.
In a statement posted on his Twitter account @saychiz, Escudero stressed that “transparency, accountability and fairness” should be the government’s guiding principles as it implements the vaccination program.
“Governance is all about allocating scarce resources. Given that vaccines are a scarce resource, it’s just allocation is a matter of good governance where transparency, accountability and fairness should be the guiding principles,” stressed the former senator.
“Simply put…the allocation and distribution of vaccines should be equitable, efficient, ethical and transparent! Good governance dictates nothing less on the allocation of this scarce resource – the vaccines,” he continued.
The former senator ended his tweet by saying: “I pray that DOH/IATF will follow and adopt these principles.”
According to Escudero, a fair and equitable distribution of vaccines will help the country achieve “herd immunity” together and bodes well for the easing of travel restrictions and movement of goods within the Philippines.
“We should achieve herd immunity together so that travel within the country will no longer be restricted, as well as the free flow of goods and services in order to revive our fledgling economy,” the veteran lawmaker said. “’Di ba nga ‘we heal as one,’ and not ‘us first before you or you first before us.’”
Earlier, IATF vaccine czar Carlito Galvez has apologized as several cities in Metro Manila a few days ago halted their first-dose vaccination programs as supply from the national government ran out.
Galvez also said the government is now targeting to increase the number of fully vaccinated individuals to 5 million to 7 million this month to boost their protection against COVID-19. Of the 9.04 million people who got their first COVID-19 dose, only 2.92 million received their second dose, he said.
Last week, Escudero has asked the DOH-Region 5 to explain why majority of the 36,800 vials of vaccines that arrived in Bicol earlier will be distributed to Albay province and the cities of Legazpi and Naga.
“I hope DOH CHD 5 can explain why 54% of the vaccine allocation is going to Albay and Naga and only 46% will be distributed to the remaining five provinces of Bicol where over 70% of the population live,” Escudero posted on his Twitter account.