Rep. Rodriguez asks VP Leni to expand vaccine project to Visayas, Mindanao

Deputy Speaker and Cagayan de Oro City Representative Rufus Rodriguez on Wednesday called on Vice President Leni Robredo to expand her drive-through vaccination project to Visayas and Mindanao areas where there are surges in COVID-19 infections.

“The Vice President should include cities in Mindanao and Visayas such as Cagayan de Oro and Iloilo where COVID-19 cases are increasing, instead of Manila, which has already given so much vaccines to its residents,” Rodriguez said in a statement.

On Tuesday, Robredo, along with the Manila City government, launched the #VaccineExpress project incentivizing those who will agree to get vaccinated against COVID-19. At least 1,500 public utility vehicle drivers and delivery riders benefitted from the project.

Robredo responded to Rodriguez’s appeal via Twitter, saying her team is very much willing to help Visayas and Mindanao.

“Will ask our team to coordinate with yours,” she said.

@RepRufus We are very much willing. Will ask our team to coordinate with yours.

— Leni Robredo (@lenirobredo) June 23, 2021

Areas of concern

According to Rodriguez, vaccination should now be directed at provinces since the number of COVID-19 cases in Metro Manila has either plateaued or rising and falling by just a small margin.

Rodriguez said the latest OCTA Research report that tagged five areas in the Visayas and Mindanao as areas of concern, only proves the severity of the situation outside Metro Manila.

“Let us not ignore the situation in the provinces and let us not forget that Metro Manila is not safe as long as there are people in areas outside the capital region getting the virus,” he said.

The five areas of concern according to OCTA Research are the cities of Davao, Bacolod, Iloilo, Cagayan de Oro, and Tacloban.

Earlier, Robredo suggested that Davao City should learn from the experience of Cebu City to address the steady rise of COVID-19 cases in the capital of Mindanao.

But presidential daughter and Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte criticized Robredo’s statement, citing the latter doesn’t know anything about the situation in Mindanao.

“The Vice President should refrain from giving advise if she knows nothing about what is happening on the ground,” Duterte earlier said.

Aside from being tagged as an area of concern, Davao City has led the list of local government units outside Metro Manila with the most number of new COVID-19 cases from June 13 to 19, according to the OCTA Research team.

Earlier, Rodriguez expressed dismay over the government’s supposed neglect of the situation in Mindanao.

The government, for its part, denied that it was ignoring the COVID-19 situation in provinces outside Metro Manila.

CDO situation

Meanwhile, in an interview on Super Radyo dzBB, Rodriguez said the allocation of COVID-19 vaccine doses in Cagayan de Oro has improved after his complaint reached President Rodrigo Duterte.

“Okay na, we are now very happy before, you know, medyo tingi-tingi lang binibigay sa Cagayan de Oro. But then when I complained in the Committee on Mindanao Affairs, it reached the President, the President on the same night ordered a recalibration,” Rodriguez said.

(We’re now okay and happy. Before, only a few vaccines were given to Cagayan de Oro. But then when I complained to the Committee on Mindanao Affairs, it reached the President, and then the President on the same night ordered a recalibration of the distribution.)

“We hope this would continue next week, ‘yung regular allocation namin kasi marami pa rin [kaso ng COVID-19],” Rodriguez said.

(We hope this would continue in the next weeks because there are still a lot of cases.)

The lawmaker earlier slammed the national government over its supposed neglect to the Mindanao region's COVID-19 situation. He said vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. did not respond to his request to provide more vaccines to Mindanao.

Malacañang denied that the COVID-19 response in Mindanao has been lacking. Galvez, for his part, ensured that more vaccine doses would be given to Mindanao in the coming weeks.  —KBK, GMA News