Marcos Jr. opposed to mandatory COVID-19 vaccination

Former Senator Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. has opposed measures and proposals to make vaccination against COVID-19 mandatory among on-site workers.

According to a report on "24 Oras" on Thursday, Marcos said the government should conduct an educational campaign on vaccination instead of forcing employees to get inoculated versus the coronavirus.

"'Wag na nating pilitin 'yong mandatory vaccination, ipaliwanag lang natin ng mabuti sa taong bayan kung bakit kailangang kailangang magpabakuna," Marcos said.

"Ito rin ay para maging ligtas ang ating pamilya, mga katrabaho, ating mga kaibigan," he added.

IATF Resolution 148-B states that "in areas where there are sufficient supplies of COVID-19 vaccines as determined by the National Vaccines Operation Center (NVOC), all establishments and employers in the public and private sector shall require their eligible employees who are tasked to do on-site work to be vaccinated against COVID-19."

Meanwhile, IATF Resolution 149 indicates that "in furtherance of IATF Resolution No. 148-B (s.2021) providing for the implementation of measures to increase demand for COVID-19 vaccinations but except when all the onsite employees/workers of an establishment are required under the Alert Level System Guidelines to be fully vaccinated, all partially vaccinated employees in the public and private sector tasked to do onsite work need not undergo regular RT-PCR test at their own expense, as long as their second dose is not yet due pursuant to the interval prescribed for the brand of vaccine received as first dose."

The House labor and employment committee said it would ask the IATF to suspend the implementation of the two resolutions.

The House Makabayan bloc earlier filed House Resolution 2373 which urged President Rodrigo Duterte to repeal IATF 148-B and instead prioritize the workers' health and well-being as economic frontliners amid the pandemic.

Ramp up vax in BARMM

Further, Marcos and vice presidential aspirant Sara Duterte asked the government to also ramp up vaccination efforts in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) and aid communities to address vaccine hesitancy.

The two candidates were alarmed at reports that the region has the lowest vaccination rates among the regions in the country.

According to the National Task Force Against COVID-19, as of November 14, there are already 324,246 fully vaccinated individuals in BARMM.  This figure represents only 7.59 percent of the estimated 4.7 million population in the region.

"We are appealing to the national government to devote more resources to the vaccination campaign in the BARMM region.  We must do everything we can to reach out to more people and convince them that getting vaccinated is the only path towards normalcy," Marcos said in a statement.

The tandem also suggested increasing BARMM's allocation of mobile inoculation sites, cold-chain vehicles, and vaccine refrigerators to ensure that the doses reach even remote communities. -Ma. Angelica Garcia/NB, GMA News