Labor: Barring private firms from procuring vaccines discriminatory

NEGROS OCCIDENTAL. For a local labor leader, it's discriminatory for the government to bar private firms from procuring Covid-19 vaccines. (File photo)
NEGROS OCCIDENTAL. For a local labor leader, it's discriminatory for the government to bar private firms from procuring Covid-19 vaccines. (File photo)

NEGROS Occidental-based labor group General Alliance of Workers Associations (Gawa) has asserted that the government is sending a mixed signal to the people in the implementation of its policies on the procurement of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) vaccines.

Wennie Sancho, secretary-general of Gawa, said the country’s policymakers are set to review laws barring private firms from procuring Covid-19 vaccines.

“It’s discriminatory to the workers who are the primary social economic force that drives the engine of our economic growth,” he lamented.

Sancho, also the labor representative to the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board (RTWPB) - Western Visayas, said it is counterproductive because workers are deprived of their rights to be protected from Covid-19.

“Our economic recovery depends on the toiling hands of the workers,” he said, adding that the government should reevaluate its policy whether it is practical or not.

The labor group claimed that the redeployment of Covid-19 vaccines to the National Capital Region after it has been allocated to the local government is a trial and error policy.

It said the government is “changing the rules at the middle of the game.”

Gawa said the Department of Health (DOH) and Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) should refrain from issuing orders that would intensify the confusion on Covid-19 issues.

“As for example, our health authorities and experts declared that the spread of the virus is prevalent among families at homes and yet the Department of Labor and Employment (Dole) encourages workers to work from home,” the group said.

It added that despite the fact that according to the Employers Confederation of the Philippines (Ecop) virus contamination seldom occurs in the workplaces, drastic measures were applied to reduce the personnel and number of hours in many workplaces, increasing unemployment and reducing the purchasing power of the workers.

Its secretary-general asked, “how can we achieve economic recovery when our policies are inconsistent with our goal? Our laws and policies on Covid-19 have been allegedly reduced to a continuing political contest, its meaning is always subject to eleventh-hour interpretation from Malacañang.”

Sancho said restoring a strong public voice on the vital issue of the Covid-19 vaccine is one of the difficult problems the country is facing today.

“Our government is awash in information, propaganda and rhetoric, yet none of it communicates timely warning to the people,” he added.

"It seems that democracy has been deformed by the breakdown of its different self-correcting mechanisms. Most of the people, particularly the critics of the government had been incapacitated, quite literally, because they no longer speak up," Sancho said.

The complicated issues of Covid-19 confronting us are difficult to discern including the bewildering facts and even fiction. But they represent the real source of general discontentment of the people on traditional politics. They are likewise the unpleasant truths that people wish not to face, he said.

“Our struggle with economic recession leaves us to shoulder most of the burden. It was compounded by the pandemic wherein the government restricted our rights and made us beg for money,” the labor leader said, adding that some observers are saying that true democratic expression nowadays allegedly, becomes more expensive and dangerous.

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