Duterte: Poor should get COVID-19 vaccines first

President Rodrigo Duterte has called on people living in subdivisions to give way to the poor for the government’s COVID-19 vaccination program, saying COVID-19 is more likely to spread in poor communities.

“Kung may mga subdivisions na medyo nalagay sa upper, pahuli muna kayo. Tutal kung gusto ninyo makabili rin kayo. But then again, I said you have so many things in your hands to protect you,” he said in a taped address aired on Tuesday. 

(If you live in subdivisions, you should give way. Anyway, you can buy for yourself if you wanted to.)

“Samantalang ito namang mga squatters ang bahay nila dikit-dikit, so the transmission is really as fast as the virus can travel. Dito naman sa subdivision, may mga bahay…you will get the vaccines in due time,” he added.

(Compare it to the situation of informal settlers whose houses are in cramped areas, those in subdivisions, they have a house, they can get the vaccine in due time.)

The President then said that those who have bigger houses can easily comply with minimum public health standards such as social distancing and isolating themselves in the event they are exposed or infected with mild COVID-19.

“Ang sinasabi ko lang kasi dito ‘yong mga mahihirap dikit-dikit ‘yong bahay. At saka, they…alam mo na, they tend to forget the protocols. Eh dito itong mga medyo well-off subdivisions, eh kaya naman ninyong mag-isolate,you can close the house and then request just somebody, an outsider to buy the food and things like that.” he said.

(Informal settlers’ houses are built so close to each other. In well off subdivisions, they can easily isolate if needed.)

The Philippines has 7.1 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine supply so far, of which four million has been administered based on government data.

The poor and low income families are listed fifth in line in the vaccination program after health workers, elderly, persons with comorbidities and economic frontliners or those who physically report to work amid quarantine restrictions.—LDF, GMA News