Duterte supposed offer of free vaccination shots for NPA members is false magnanimity and baseless bragging. His claim that he wants the NPA “to stay healthy” is a big lie. The tyrant Duterte has repeatedly proved himself incapable of basic humanitarian concern. Everyday people accused by the military of being NPA members are being killed or thrown into jail. Under his evil counterinsurgency drive, his soldiers terrorize unarmed people in rural villages. They see Red everywhere, accuse people of being NPA members or supporters for merely standing up for their rights.

Furtheron, his plan to make AFP soldiers the first to receive the Covid-19 vaccine is utterly callous and contemptuous of the health workers who are at the frontline of the battle against the pandemic.

His idea that AFP soldiers will be the ones to administer the vaccines is a stupid concept. He refuses to learn from experience how his government’s pandemic response has been bungled under the inept and incapable leadership of military officers assigned to the IATF. Duterte wants everything to be under the military and police because he views the pandemic as a national security issue and political survival of his regime.

Who believes in Duterte’s brag of of providing free vaccines after he has miserably failed in distributing social subsidies in the past months, which he also assigned to the military?

Besides, he does not even have the vaccines yet and has promised to buy only 20 million dosages from China. He is also making a big show of planning to get the vaccines from China, as if this is something the people should thank him for, when in fact, without bidding and accounting, he will likely get big cuts from his deal with Xi Jinping and have his share stashed away in China.