House Majority Leader Martin Romualdez vowed Saturday the chamber would continue supporting the rollout of programs aimed at helping coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) victims as well as the people adversely affected by the lockdowns imposed to contain the spread of the disease.
This, as Romualdez thanked Sen. Christopher Go for helping his constituents, the people of Leyte — the latest of which was the assistance Go extended to 800 members of the Tricycle Operators and Drivers Association and public market vendors of Tanauan, Leyte.
Romualdez, chairman of the House Committee on Rules, welcomed the timely assistance provided by Go to the tricycle drivers and vendors who have been affected by the COVID pandemic.
“In the informal sector, tricycles drivers and vendors are among many workers in the country who badly need assistance from the government. We have to continue providing the needed aid for them,” Romualdez added.
“Thank you Sen. Bong Go for showing malasakit by helping our people in Leyte whose livelihoods have been cut off by the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Romualdez, president of the Lakas–Christian Muslim Democrats (Lakas-CMD) and the Philippine Constitution Association (Philconsa).
In a related development, Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Raymund Villafuerte renewed his appeal to the key implementers of the COVID-19 vaccination program to prioritize the fast-track training of personnel at the local government level on the proper storage, handling and administration of the highly temperature-sensitive vaccine doses to avoid drug wastage and ensure the drive’s success when the anti-COVID shots become readily available in the provinces.
Villafuerte made his appeal after the World Health Organization (WHO) itself flagged the lack of trained people to give the anti-COVID shots in many low- and middle-income countries.
Alongside staging a nationwide information campaign to persuade people to get their anti-COVID shots once these become available, Villafuerte said: “The government should also ensure that the staff handling the vaccines in the communities are familiar with the hierarchy of priorities on who should get the vaccines; how these doses should be stored, especially in localities where there are no available cold storage facilities; and how to properly administer the shots to the target-beneficiaries.’
“In CamSur, we already have a list of the priority beneficiaries across the province as well as the list of frontliners who are to administer the vaccines,” Villafuerte, a former CamSur governor, said. “But our frontliners need to be properly trained on how to administer the shots. LGU (local government unit) staff should also be trained on the proper storage of the meds.”
“Another thing is that there are certain municipalities that have no adequate cold storage facilities to keep the vaccines,” Villafuerte added.
Meanwhile, representatives from concerned government agencies also distributed additional assistance to the beneficiaries under their respective government programs.
The agencies include Department of Social Welfare and Development, Department of Trade and Industry, Department of Health, National Housing Authority, Department of Agriculture-Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority.
Go also informed the beneficiaries that they might conveniently avail themselves of assistance for their health care needs from the nearest Malasakit Center located at Eastern Visayas Regional Medical Center in Tacloban City.
In related developments, Senate President Vicente Sotto III called on the government to ensure that prices of basic commodities and services remained reasonable and affordable amid the surge in COVID-19 cases and the unified curfew hours regulating travel and movement in Metro Manila.
“The government needs to assure our people that it is on top of the situation, that it is committed to protecting everyone not only from the virus but also from unscrupulous individuals who have the gall to exploit our current state to enrich themselves,” Sotto said.
The Senate president said government leaders should have learned their lessons from the country’s experience last year, and by now should know that the supply of goods, especially food, should not be affected by curfews and other restrictions on movement and transportation.
“The IATF should make sure that the transport of rice, vegetables, and other agriculture products is not blocked or held in checkpoints. It should come up with stricter and immediate sanctions against scheming individuals or companies,” he said.
Also in the House of Representatives, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee said circuit-breaker measures would no longer work as much as effective vaccination, warning that lockdowns may even hurt the country more than help.
Albay Rep. Joey Salceda expressed alarm over the country’s rising positivity rate, or how many among those who take coronavirus disease 2019 tests turn out to be positive, at 15 percent.
“COVID-19 cases show no signs of slowing down in the short-run. All signs point to a bigger wave than the last one. We are closely monitoring the trends,” Salceda said.
“By all accounts, this coming wave will be bigger than the first one. Our highest was at 23 percent, in March last year.”
He said that although the fatality rate shows little signs of ticking up, the country is also seeing a slowdown in recoveries due to the surge in cases.
He stressed that the country could no longer be able to afford lockdowns, and the government must ensure that the country’s healthcare capacity can handle new cases.
Aside from strengthening health systems, he said the government should also work on issuing the implementing rules on the COVID-19 Vaccination Program Act as soon as possible so that the bureaucracy would not be bogged down in the middle of a second wave.
“There are two big pictures involved here: systems and culture. On systems, clearly, we do not have an ambitious-enough vaccination program. We are vaccinating around 10,000 doses per day. At this rate, we will be able to meet herd immunity only by 2055. The pace is unacceptable, and we have to do better,” he said. “The culture has also retreated. Minimum health standards are no longer observed as faithfully.”
As for the cultural aspect, Salceda said there is a “false sense of security” in the fact that some vaccines have already arrived, as well as a prevailing “lockdown fatigue”.
“That’s why we need a more ambitious pace of vaccination, combined with stricter minimum health standards and stronger healthcare system support,” he said.
He pointed out that he has not seen any logistical preparations for mass rollout, as well as a unified contact tracing system.
He said only testing and treatment have seen significant progress.
“We in Congress are frustrated. We authorize every piece of legislation the agencies say they need to deal with the crisis. The President has also given the agencies unprecedented authority. We are still ready to authorize whatever they need,” he said, adding that government agencies should do better.
“If necessary, we in Congress will use our oversight powers to make sure they do,” he said.
