Local government units (LGUs) that fail to consistently submit updated records of their vaccination status will be asked to explain why they should not be sanctioned, the government said Thursday.
Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) noted that delays in reporting could have caused some 10 million jabs to go unreported.
"It is possible that the DILG will issue a show cause order to LGUs that are not submitting their updates up until now," Malaya said.
Malaya's comment came after Interior Secretary Eduardo Año reported that 30 percent of LGUs were not consistent in submitting their vaccination data.
Malaya said that the supply of vaccines nationwide has become stable enough for LGUs to ramp up their vaccination efforts.
He said the DILG is looking at the daily performances of LGUs in their vaccination rollout.
"We are giving them some time to be able to reach the target. If we see that the target is not moving, then we can say that there is negligence,” he said.
"In the next few weeks the DILG could already tell if there are LGUs that need to be issued a show cause order and charged with negligence or misconduct," he added.
Año said the DILG is set to meet with local chief executives to thresh out issues affecting their vaccination drives.
He expressed dismay over the slow inoculation pace in Central Luzon and Calabarzon when these are just adjacent to Metro Manila, which has a high vaccination rate.
“They are very slow. The other regions outperformed them. Davao City, for example, outpaced them. So there is something wrong,’’ he added.
While saying he does not have the exact figures, Año said the vaccination rates in these regions are significantly lower when they should have reached a vaccination rate of 60 percent to 70 percent by this time.
He said they would find out what problems were holding them back.
“Is it a lack of cold storage facilities? How do you transport the vaccines from the provincial capitol to the municipalities [and] to the barangays?” he said. “This is why the Philippine National Police, the Armed Forces and the Bureau of Fire Protection will make all their resources available for the local government unit to bring the vaccines closer to the people. How will they also bring people to vaccination centers? We will discuss that," he said.
President Rodrigo Duterte, in his Talk to the People on Wednesday, expressed dissatisfaction over the current COVID-19 vaccination rollout.
Año added the DILG will also put up a monitoring system that will determine the number of vaccines delivered to each LGU and how many of these were administered “on a day to day basis."
In other developments:
• Senator Imee Marcos said LGUs should not be entirely blamed for the delay in hitting vaccination targets. She agreed with the President that LGUs that delay vaccinations should be punished, but said these are few and far between. LGUs in the more distant provinces, she added, are desperate to get their hands on vaccines. She cited a Bloomberg report released Tuesday that said “a shocking 40 million doses remain unused not because of LGU negligence, but rather because of logistical logjams either at the DOH (Department of Health), BOC (Bureau of Customs), or somewhere in our chaotic distribution and storage chains.” The other major cause of delay, Marcos said, was still vaccine hesitancy, which has not yet been addressed in a coherent way.
• The chief implementor of the National Task Force Against COVID-19, Secretary Carlito Galvez, said the government aims to fully protect 90 percent of Metro Manila's general population, including children, from COVID-19 by the end of the year. “Our target is before the end of the year, at least in Metro Manila, almost 90 percent fully vaccinated including the children,” he said. Galvez emphasized that vaccinating children will be crucial in ensuring the nation’s future. "We’re not only protecting our lives, our economy, but also we’re protecting our future and that’s one of the most important things. The pandemic is not a fight for our lives, not only for our health, for the economy, this is also a fight for our future,” he said.
• Manila Mayor Francisco "Isko Moreno" Domagoso on Thursday called on parents and guardians who have family members aged 12 to 17 that are bedridden, wheelchair-bound or physically incapable of going to the vaccination sites, to register for home vaccination. He said they should register with the barangay which, in turn, will forward the list to the Manila City Hall for proper scheduling, which will be done on a first come, first served basis.
