The Department of Health (DOH) on Friday supported a proposal to make vaccinations against COVID-19 mandatory for specific at-risk sectors after vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez said he sees the need for all Filipinos to be vaccinated.
The Interior department, on the other hand, is planning to implement a "no vaccine, no ayuda" policy for beneficiaries of the 4Ps conditional cash transfer program.
"We were discussing that for 4Ps, that would involve around 6 to 7 million of our kababayan. If they will not get vaccinated, we will not release their ayuda under 4Ps," Interior Undersecretary Epimaco Densing said even as he acknowledged that a law must be passed to makevaccination mandatory.
"It's a disincentive. I think it can be justified and remember we are still under a national health emergency. In a public health emergency we have to make sure that everybody contributes to the containment of the spread of the virus. And a person who is non-vaccinated may be a potential spreader of COVID," he added.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said Congress needs to pass a measure to make vaccination mandatory.
“But this [mandatory vaccination] is a last resort of the government because we want to achieve population protection,”she said in Filipino.
"Government has the authority because we are seeing that we will not achieve protection for the population if part of the population will not receive the vaccines," she added.
Vergeire made the remark in response to Galvez’s proposal to make COVID-19 vaccinations mandatory.
Should a law be passed requiring Filipinos to get fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, she said there must be consultations with various stakeholders to make the policy "more inclusive."
Vergeire said the law aims to address vaccination gaps in some sectors, "which are vulnerable and face people every day in their line of work."
Government data as of Thursday showed the Philippines had fully vaccinated over 28.7 million individuals while more than 33.7 million had received an initial dose.
While vaccine confidence in the country has "improved tremendously," Vergeire said there were still those who do not believe in getting the jab.
This, despite the agency's aggressive information campaign and some local government units giving incentives to fully vaccinated individuals, she said.
The latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey showed a majority of Filipinos are willing to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
Based on face-to-face interviews, 64 percent said that they were willing to get vaccinated—of which, 25 percent and 10 percent have received their second and first doses respectively, while 23 percent said that they will surely get vaccinated and 6 percent will probably get vaccinated.
On the other hand, 19 percent say they are uncertain, and 18 percent say they are unwilling to get vaccinated against Covid-19.
The latest percentage of those willing to get vaccinated is nine points above the 55 percent in June 2021. It is twice as high as 32 percent in May 2021, when SWS first surveyed the subject.
Also on Friday, the League of Provinces of the Philippines (LPP) said local government units need time to catch up with the national government's ramped-up COVID-19 vaccination goal.
Interviewed on radio dzBB, LPP president and Marinduque Gov. Presbitero Velasco Jr. said many LGUs are used to receiving only a small allocation of COVID-19 vaccine doses.
“The LGUs are still adjusting,” he said.
Velasco made the statement after Health Undersecretary Myrna Cabotaje called out the supposed lack of urgency of some LGUs regarding vaccination.