Read in: Pilipino

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) urges the Filipino people to get Covid-19 vaccination. While individuals have the right to refuse getting vaccinated over their own personal reasons, it is to the greater interest of public health and fighting the pandemic that as many people be inoculated.

The Filipino people must overcome their fear of vaccines which resulted from the Dengvaxia scare from a few years back. Let us base our decision on publicly available scientific information, as well as findings of regulatory bodies, concerning the efficacy and safety of the Covid-19 vaccines being developed by pharmaceutical companies.

All Party committees and NPA units must carry out an information campaign to raise the people’s awareness of vaccines, in line with the health campaign to prevent the spread of Covid-19 infections. They must also raise the people’s awareness of the crucial responsibility of the state to provide the people with free vaccines to ensure that a large majority of the population are immunized from the disease. The Party calls on the people to raise the demand for free vaccines to all.

A number of countries have already put into place plans to provide free vaccination including China, Japan, US, New Zealand, Norway among others. Even less developed countries such as Vietnam, Cuba, India, Iran and others have developed their own vaccines and are set to distribute it for free.

Vaccines are among the most important scientific achievement of humanity in the fight against debilitating diseases and in improving people’s quality of life. It is thus a great offense that the Philippine government has done nothing to help raise the country’s capability to do research and develop vaccines.

While millions of vaccines have already been rolled out across the world, the Duterte regime remains without a comprehensive plan for inoculating the population. In fact, it allotted a mere 2.7% of the required ₱72 billion to vaccinate at least 60% of Filipinos revealing it has no plan to lead a major vaccination campaign.

The national government’s efforts to acquire vaccines has been mired in controversy as Duterte’s officials jockey against each other in the race to bag the juicy contracts and earn their kickbacks. The unauthorized and secret inoculation of Duterte’s security guards and cabinet members using smuggled vaccines, even before any vaccine could be authorized, has offended health workers and the Filipino people.

The national government’s lack of clear plans to acquire enough vaccines has generated conditions where local government units and private companies are compelled to acquire vaccines on their own, leaving the less endowed government units to fend for themselves. A great divide between the haves and have nots over the issue of Covid-19 vaccination is now cutting across the country.