According to Albay 2nd District Rep. Joey Salceda, calls to place the entire Philippines under modified general community quarantine will not work if people won’t go outside due to lack of COVID-19 vaccines.
Salceda’s statement was in response to the proposal of Acting Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Chua urging the national government to relax quarantine restrictions nationwide starting March 21 to help stimulate the economy.
“I think you need to ramp up the vaccine first. I think with the kind of vaccine program we have, I doubt whether he will get the results he wants,” Salceda said.
“Hindi ko sinasabing irrelevant ‘yong sinabi ni [Secretary] Chua. Ang sinasabi ko, kahit sumigaw ka pa diyan, hindi naman lalabas ‘yong mga tao kasi walang bakuna,” he added.
The chair of the House ways and means committee said he has yet to see anything with regard to the country’s vaccination drive.
“‘Yong distribution rollout system natin, I haven’t seen anything actually, at least from the congressional review of the vaccination program,” he said.
“So, where are the cold storage [facilities]? Where are the all sorts of other things that are necessary? Have you trained the people we need to vaccinate? In short, all logistical requirements for you to get successful and more effective rollout of vaccines.”
Chua previously claimed that the country has lost P1.04 trillion, or an average of P2.8 billion every day, since the beginning of the lockdown last March 2020.
