Mayor asks for more COVID-19 vaccines in Mariveles, home of 'largest economic zone in Philippines'

Mariveles, Bataan Mayor Jocelyn Castañeda on Saturday appealed to the national government to provide more COVID-19 vaccines to her densely-populated municipality, which she said is home to the biggest economic zone in the country, the Freeport Area of Bataan.

During the Laging Handa briefing, Castañeda disclosed that the local government unit has so far vaccinated only around 3,000 of its 149,789 population.

“‘Yun po ang isa sa panawaagan sa [Department of Health] na sana ang Mariveles po, considering peculiar ang situation dito dahil  kami po ang host ng pinakamalaking economic zone dito sa buong Pilipinas, eh sana magkaroon po magkaroon ng sariling allocation, ang Mariveles, outside of the allocation for the province,” the Mariveles mayor said.

(That is our call to the DOH. We hope that they will consider the peculiar situation in Mariveles. We are hosting the biggest economic zone in the entire Philippines. So we hope that we will receive allocation outside the vaccine allocations for the entire province.)

She explained that the national government has a separate vaccine allocation to Balanga City, Bataan. Meanwhile, the 11 municipalities of the province are dividing the vaccine allocation for Bataan among themselves without considering the number of population per municipality.

“I’m not saying that it is unfair pero siguro po makikita ninyo na kung sana prorated po ang pagdi-distribute ng allocation, baka po mapantayan po namin ‘yung rate ng kanilang vaccinatoon and sana po sabay-sabay kami magkaron ng herd immunity,” she explained.

(I’m not saying that it is unfair but if the vaccine distribution is pro-rated then maybe we can achieve the vaccination rate of other municipalities and achieve herd immunity at the same time.)

Compared to Mariveles’ population, Castañeda noted that some municipalities in Bataan only have around 30,000 residents.

“As of this time, we know for a fact na insufficient ang vaccines pero kung iko-compare sa ibang bayan sa Bataan, nahuhuli po ang Mariveles dahil ang distribution po ay per municipality and not prorated sa population,” she noted.

(As of this time, we know for a fact that the vaccine supply is insufficient but compared to other municipalities in Bataan, Mariveles is getting behind the vaccination program because the distribution is per municipality and not based on the population.)

As of July 17, the mayor said there are 563 active cases in Mariveles, of which, 372 are in the Freeport Area of Bataan while 191 are in the communities.

She explained that the province was placed under the modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) due to a lack of intensive care units in the province.

“Sa Mariveles alone ay walang ICU. Kailangan pa namin dalhin sa Balanga at [Philippine General Hospital] ang mga severe cases. Kaya ‘yon ang pinaka-reason kung bakit ang Bataan ay nasa MECQ,” she said.

(In Mariveles alone, there are no ICUs and we need to bring our severe COVID-19 cases to Balanga or PGH. That is one of the reasons why Bataan is placed under MECQ.)

Last Thursday, Malacañang announced that the entire province of Bataan will be placed under MECQ until end of July.

Mariveles, Lapu-Lapu City and Cebu City had the highest COVID-19 infection rates this past week, according to the OCTA Research group.

The Philippines has recorded 1,496,328 total COVID-19 cases in the country after the DOH reported 5,676 fresh cases on Friday afternoon. -MDM, GMA News