INDONESIA has started implementing its mass inoculation program to solve once and for all the Covid-19 problem that also is a puzzle for this Southeast Asian neighbor like it is a puzzle for the world. It has purchased doses of Coronavac, the vaccine produced by the Chinese firm Sinovac Biotech, meaning that the country’s mass vaccination will start way ahead of ours. But having other countries launch first the mass vaccination effort can be good for us that lag behind. We will get lessons from their endeavors.
For Cebu, local government units need to prepare because the Duterte administration will soon receive the millions of doses of the vaccines it will purchase. Procurement is but a first step in this process. Distribution and administration are the others. Then there is the act of choosing the sectors that will be given the vaccines first.
In some countries, local governments did not depend solely on the national initiative. They purchased doses of the vaccines directly from the concerned firms. I think we have big local government units (LGUs) in Cebu—Cebu City for instance—that are capable of doing this. But will the national government allow this? And will big LGUs dare to exhaust their resources for this undertaking?
The key word here is “preparation.” Whether LGUs purchase some vaccines for their own people or wait for the vaccines purchased by the national government, they have to ensure that storage facilities will already be in place. I say that Cebu’s success in halting the spread of the coronavirus is partly because the LGUs were quick to set up isolation and other types of facilities.
I think that this early LGUs should already decide on who should be given priority in vaccination. They can, say, already come up with a list to smoothen the process. I do not pretend to be knowledgeable on this, but the point is, LGUs should not be like the proverbial Juan Tamad waiting for the fruit to fall to his mouth. Good leaders need to have foresight and act accordingly.
And even as government officials prepare for the mass vaccination process, the people must also be vigilant. A big amount of money is involved here, and there are firms with records of bribing government regulators in the past. The danger is when bribery is involved in the purchase of the vaccines. The Philippine government, after all, has never been a model for clean governance.
Interestingly, all of these are happening as Cebu goes through two major events, Christmas and the feast of the Child Jesus. Both events are rooted in our Christian beliefs and should hopefully remind government officials of the essence of public service. As for the people, they should be reminded that the coronavirus is still in our midst and that mass vaccination may happen after the two events yet. It would be sad if there would be a resurgence of Covid-19 infections in Cebu and another round of lockdowns will be imposed. If that happens, we will have nothing to blame but our complacency.