WE do not know yet if those areas identified as vaccination hubs in Davao City are final. Say, for the third district the local vaccination Task Force headed by newly retired City Health Officer Dr. Josephine Villafuerte, the identified hub is the Mintal Elementary School.
If the said hub is the only one to cater to all prospective vaccine recipients in the third district then woe unto those living in the far-flung areas because they will have a hard time reaching the vaccination site.
Even if their places are accessible by public transportation, the frequency of the trips will surely affect their chances of reaching the hub on time. Also, if they are to be at the hub on schedule, they have to advance their trip a day before. Meaning, they have to stay in Mintal to be closer to where the location of the center is – the Mintal Elementary School.
And even if public transport is available, residents in some barangays belonging to the third district will be commuting twice or even thrice, depending on the routes of the transport vehicles available.
Simply said it will be another financial burden to the people in the remote areas of the district just to be able to be on the vaccination site on time or at least on the scheduled day of the inoculation. And considering the distance between the Mintal hub and their residences the likelihood is that the vaccine seekers will have to provide for their food or even lodging.
How much drain will this be in the resources of the long-suffering people? Most of us now are actually depending on our very limited resources acquired on a day-to-day basis and hardly are there opportunities for earning such because of the collapsing economy of the country.
Now we know that our only hope for a faster return to normalcy and the recovery of the economy is the vaccination of at least 70 percent of the country’s population. When this is achieved experts are saying that we can have a so-called “herd immunity” where the majority are already protected from infection of the virus.
It is our take that if there is a limited number of vaccination hubs to be set up in Davao City, then our local government may not be able to contribute its fair share in the attainment of the 70 percent target of people to be vaccinated all over the country. That is on the assumption that our local government will get the soonest possible time its allocation of whatever vaccines will arrive in the country.
Actually, we believe that the people in the Vaccination Task Force need not be reminded of the geographical as well as the topographical condition of Davao City. They know very well how wide our city is and how many percent of the city’s population are in the most rural of areas.
Hence, we are certain that by limiting the number of vaccination centers in the barangay nearer the downtown only, it would be a deliberate denial of access to many Davaoenos of the vaccination services.
And we also heard that the vaccination site for people in the second district of the city is located in the Buhangin Elementary School.
We could not imagine how the inoculation efforts will be able to cater to residents of the barangays and sitios in Paquibato district. These are several kilometers awar and with very limited public transport available on a regular basis. Most are on “alas puno” in departing from the highlands to the city and back. Well, there may be more people travelling on vaccination schedules. But certainly the travel is long.
Perhaps, the brains behind the task force on vaccination should better re-think the idea of clustering the centers in places where convenience serves only those conducting the vaccination and creates big hassles for those hoping to be vaccinated. What about that ladies and gentlemen of the Task Force?
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Now, many senators are raising howls against certain policies adopted by the government in dealing with the CoronaVirus pandemic. And who are these senators? We have Nancy Binay, Ralph Recto, Imee Marcos, Franklin Drilon, Kiko Pangilinan, Risa Hontiveros, Lilah Delima, and even Senate President Vicente Sotto III. Earlier the most vocal was Sen. Panfilo Lacson. They are now joining the chorus with some private person critics to the administration.
But a deeper scrutiny on the lawmakers concerned, make us think somehow, their being blabber-mouthed now may have something to do with their political plans in the election next year. This leads us to ask the question, how many and who among the new batch of administration critics are running for reelection or aspiring for some higher position? How many of them are also wanting to be considered by the so-called 1Bayan Coalition just in case they would not make it to the administration ticket or are already certain of their exclusion?
Yes, they are now coming out with something that would make them audible and visible because they barely have six months left before the deadline of the filing of certificate of candidacy for whatever position they are eyeing.
