NANCY TO GALVEZ: HEED CALL OF GOVERNORS, MAYORS FOR MORE VACCINES IN PROVINCES

Senator Nancy Binay today backed the call of local government units outside the National Capital Region for a more equitable distribution of Covid-19 vaccines.

"I appeal to the national government to heed the cry for help of our local chief executives outside NCR for them to have a share of the vaccines that are coming in," Binay said.

This, as vaccine czar Sec. Carlito Galvez, Jr. on Monday said that the country would have received at least 100 million vaccine doses by the end of October. Galvez also said that the government was expecting to have administered 55 million doses by then.

"If the government is saying that we have already addressed supply problems, our next step should be in downloading this supply to provinces outside NCR, who still have a lot of catching up to do," Binay said.

The lawmaker said it was "unfair" that even as the rollout of vaccines for the general population, including minors by October had already been approved, many provinces are still finding it difficult to vaccinate their A1 to A3 priority groups.

"Hindi nararamdaman ng mga nasa probinsya na sapat na ang supply ng bakuna dahil maraming hindi pa nabakunahan, o 'di kaya ay patuloy na naghihintay ng second dose nila," Binay said.

The senator said that the government should fast-track the delivery of vaccines to other provinces.

"Nasa last quarter na tayo ng taon. If we are to gain significant headway in our goal of achieving immunity for majority of the population, we have to address supply bottlenecks in our provinces, especially the poorer LGUs that have difficulty acquiring and distributing them to their constituents," said Binay.

Binay also urged the government to enlist the private sector's help in the vaccine rollout, after a survey showed that majority of large Filipino companies want to be more involved in the program.

A survey of 200 member-companies from 34 business groups showed that 65 percent of companies preferred to take part in the vaccine rollout,over other forms of assistance such as donation and charitable activities (2 percent) and livelihood training programs (1 percent).

Majority of the respondents of the survey, which was administered by the Makati Business Club and processed by the Philippine Survey and Research Center Inc., belonged to the Management Association of the Philippines , MBC, and the Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines.

"Hayaan nating tumulong ang mga nais tumulong. Sama-sama naman tayo sa problemang dala ng pandemya, kaya mabuti na rin na sama-sama tayong tumutugon rito," said the senator.

As of September 23, more than 43 million doses of coronavirus vaccines had been administered, with more than 19 million Filipinos having been fully vaccinated.