NTF: Nayong Pilipino, other sites to boost daily COVID-19 vaccinations

The planned mega vaccination site at the Nayong Pilipino and other large venues will help the Philippines meet its target of 500,000 daily COVID-19 inoculations, the spokesman of the National Task Force (NTF) Against COVID-19 said Tuesday.

Retired General Restituto Padilla said the NTF is “working to increase the number of vaccination sites with as much facilities as we can put up in anticipation of the mass rollout once the vaccine supplies start coming in in big numbers.”

Padilla said this was why the government accepted the offer of the Razon group, led by billionaire Enrique Razon Jr., to build a mega vaccination site at the Nayong Pilipino

“The government accepted the offer… because of its availability and size of the available area and the design of which was made by the acclaimed architect [Felino] Palafox,” he told GMA News Online.

“This will be in addition to the other existing facilities like stadiums and malls,” Padilla added. “The more vaccine facilities we have, the better for our push to have 500,000 vaccinations a day all over the Philippines.”

However, the project is facing opposition from the board of the Nayong Pilipino Foundation (NPF), which has not yet approved the construction because 500 trees would need to be cut down.

The controversy has prompted Lucille Karen Malilong-Isberto to resign as Nayong Pilipino executive director.

Over the weekend, vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. slammed the NPF Board of Trustees for equating “the fate of 500 Ipil-Ipil trees with the lives of hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Filipinos.”

Malacañang also called on the NPF, a government-owned and -controlled corporation, not to go against the directive of President Rodrigo Duterte.

The country has received over 7 million vaccine doses so far. Only 1.7 million have been vaccinated against COVID-19 as of May 4, still far off from the government’s goal of inoculating 50 million to 70 million people this year. -MDM, GMA News