Duterte says spare COVID-19 vaccines can be given to NPA

President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday said that spare COVID-19 vaccines can be given to New People's Army (NPA) members so they can get protection against the viral disease.

“‘Pag may sobra. Kung may sobra lang. Hindi kayo puwedeng unahin kay kalaban kayo sa gobyerno,” he said during the second part of the President’s Talk to the People aired Tuesday.

(If there are spare [vaccines]. Only if there are spare [items]. You cannot be prioritized because you are enemies of the government.)

Duterte then said he wished to go back to Typhoon Odette-hit areas to check what various agencies have provided to the affected people and to see if the people still in evacuation centers are already vaccinated.

He said that if a number of people are still unvaccinated, the Philippine Coast Guard could utilize their fast crafts to deliver the doses faster especially to far flung areas.

National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) executive director Ricardo Jalad said that there are still 339,478 individuals residing in 1,146 evacuation centers due to Odette which caused devastation in December in parts of Visayas and Mindanao.

Duterte then asked the NPA to allow the government to continue the vaccination drive in these areas.

“Itong mga tao diyan sa bukid-bukid na nasa baba ngayon kasi walang bahay, you allow them to go around at mabakunahan ang mga tao,” he said.

(Allow these people in farms who have no shelter now to get vaccinated.)

He stressed that if there are spare vaccines after the inoculation of the Odette-affected people, then those can be given to the NPA.

“Tignan lang ninyo at kung may sobra... Pero tawagan ninyo muna ako, na kung may sobra ibigay niyo sa NPA para hindi ma-COVID-19,” Duterte said.

(Let’s see if there are spare vaccines then we can give it to the NPA so they won’t get COVID-19, but call me first.)

‘Weapon on war’

In response, Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) chief information officer Marco Valbuena said Duterete’s “fiendish and fascist mindset” was revealed in this statement as he is using the medical service as a “weapon of war.”

Valbuena noted that in humanitarian principles of war, medical service or treatment should be extended to one’s enemy, even in times of combat.

“Duterte is making senseless noise to cover-up the fact that vaccine distribution in the rural areas is grossly lacking. Kulang na kulang na nga ang bakuna, tagibang na tagibang pa ang distribusyon [There is already shortage of vaccine supply and its distribution is still one-sided]” he said.

Valbuena admitted that a huge number of the NPA remains unvaccinated against COVID-19 as the vaccination centers are far and they do not have the money for travel.

This is why they are using herbal medicines to treat those who have symptoms, he said.

“It is a good thing that the NPA has taken the initiative to work with mass organizations and village health workers to prepare lagundi, tanglad, and other herbal preparations that are used to treat coughs, colds, fever, and other symptoms of COVID-19,” he added.

Based on the Department of Health’s national COVID-19 vaccination dashboard, 59,799,215 individuals have already received their first dose against COVID-19 as of Sunday.

Of this number, 57,268,257 have completed their doses, while 6,98,336 have received their booster shots. —KG/RSJ, GMA News