TACLOBAN Mayor Alfred Romualdez is set to face an investigation following his early jab of Sinovac vaccine against coronavirus disease (Covid-19) despite not being a medical frontliner.
On Tuesday, March 23, 2021, Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque announced they would ask the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) to deal on the matter.
In a statement, the Office of Mayor Romualdez said the local chief executive’s vaccination was meant “to boost confidence in the vaccination program of the government” amid the public distrust of the Chinese-made vaccine.
"Because everyone was scared and everyone was waiting for me. So I did it to lead my people out of fear. And I'm glad they responded positively! Never say that I did it to save myself before others. I did it to make the people see that it was okay to get the vaccine,” said Romualdez on Tuesday.
“I wanted our people to take it for protection, and so that the efforts of the national government will not be in vain," he added.
After he passed the health screening and assessment, Romualdez received the Sinovac vaccine on Monday, March 22.
"I was also being true to myself and to what I said, that everything that hits us, hits me first. So, ako nalang ang gawing guinea pig n'yo. As the mayor, I am also a frontliner," the mayor said.
According to the mayor, around 50 people on the priority list already refused to get the shot.
“There was an excess of vaccine supply since other medical workers refused to get the vaccines. We don’t want to return these vaccines to Metro Manila. Imagine the trouble of bringing it here and bringing it back,” Romualdez told the local media.
Tacloban received 3,164 vaccine allocations for private and government frontliners. (SunStar Philippines)