DILG Upgrades Vaccine Priority For High Ranking Local Government Officials
DILG UPGRADES VACCINE PRIORITY – As the Philippines’ vaccination program ramps up, certain concerns regarding the government’s vaccination priority list were echoed.
Recently, five mayors were under the hot seat after they got inoculated with COVID-19 vaccines despite being less prioritized. But, after a few days, the Department of Local and Interior Government (DILG) said local government officials would get a boost in the list.
During an interview with ABS-CBN, Interior Undersecretary Epimaco Densing stated that Governors, Mayors, and Barangay Captains don’t need to skip the line. He explained that it’s because “they’ve been upgraded”.
As such, over 1,700 governors and mayors, along with more than 42,000 village chiefs were reclassified into the A4 category. Under this, the local officials could now be classified as essential frontline workers.
Previously, local officials were tagged as B3 or “other essential workers”. This meant that they were eight in the government’s vaccination priority list. Meanwhile, Densing said that the local officials were basically frontline workers because:
“they go out every day, look at their patients, at their constituency and they’re really exposed on a daily basis. So, they’re like essential workers”.
As per the interview, Densing stated that during a meeting with the Inter-Agency Task Force on COVID-19, talks of including vice mayors, councilors, board members, and kagawads were presented.
However, Densing declined the proposal saying that their main function was “legislative in nature”. Therefore, the other officials weren’t required to do frontline work unless they volunteered.
Under the B category, teachers and social workers will get inoculated with a vaccine first. Following them are other government workers, other essential workers, those with higher infection risks, OFWs, and the remaining workforce.
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