City mayors to meet on own vaccine procurement plans. Inquirer Newsletter. December 24, 2020

No images? Click here   STARS OF HOPE   What appears to be a wall of lanterns is actually part of a giant Christmas tree erected on the grounds of the Quezon City Hall, offering holiday cheer and a reminder that even a pandemic year can come to a close with the colors of hope. —NIÑO JESUS ORBETA     News Deadline for jeepney operators extended  The government has allowed jeepney drivers and operators to consolidate their fleets for its modernization program for public utility vehicles (PUVs) up to March 31 next year. The Department of Transportation launched the program to restructure and “modernize” PUVs that are still tied to the traditional boundary system. Fleet consolidation encourages small operators to form consortiums to oversee PUVs. —STORY BY MARIEJO S. RAMOS Read more: newsinfo.inquirer.net   World Singaporeans still wary of COVID shots Singaporeans are generally accepting of vaccines, with a nearly 90-percent uptake of required childhood injections. But many are still concerned about the COVID-19 vaccines that have had rapid approval in the city-state and were developed using novel technology, a public health official said. With local daily cases almost zero, some also see potential side effects that may not be worth the risk of getting a jab. —STORY BY REUTERS Read more: newsinfo.inquirer.net/World   Regions Red-tagged doctor, husband laid to rest BACOLOD CITY—San Carlos Bishop Gerardo Alminaza led the call for justice in the killing of Dr. Mary Rose Sancelan and her husband, Edwin, during a funeral Mass in Guihulngan City, Negros Oriental, on Tuesday. The Sancelans were shot dead by a man on a motorbike on Dec. 15, a year after the doctor, the city’s health officer, was Red-tagged by an anticommunist vigilante group. —STORY BY CARLA GOMEZ AND NESTOR P. BURGOS JR. Read more: newsinfo.inquirer.net/regions   Newsletter / Join us Has this been forwarded by a friend? Subscribe now to the Philippine Daily Inquirer Newsletter and get your latest news and important updates on COVID-19 and the enhanced community quarantine. Subscribe   Get here     Banner story City mayors to meet on own vaccine procurement plans   By Nestor P. Burgos Jr. ILOILO CITY—A committee of the 145-member League of Cities of the Philippines (LCP) will meet next week to tackle plans for direct procurement of COVID-19 vaccines by local authorities around the country, a former leader of the group said on Wednesday. Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas, who had served as LCP president and chair, said the LCP president, Bacolod City Mayor Evelio Leonardia, would call the meeting of the committee composed of city mayors to discuss the procurement of vaccines for cities in the country. “We need to discuss plans especially for cities who can afford to buy their own vaccines because the sooner we can administer these, the sooner we can return to normal,” Treñas told the Inquirer in a phone interview. He said Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, who is chair of the National Task Force Against COVID-19, had given approval for the cities to procure vaccines. Treñas said he had also appealed to business organizations and employers to also procure vaccines for their employees. Iloilo allotment The Florete Group of Companies, which includes radio network Bombo Radyo and a hotel chain in Iloilo City, has already announced its plan to procure vaccines, according to the mayor. The Iloilo City government has allocated P109 million of a planned P200 million allotment for vaccine purchases. Aside from hastening the procurement of vaccines and inoculation of their constituents, the proposed move would also ease the burden on the national government’s vaccination plans, Treñas said. No guidelines yet The national government has not released guidelines for the procurement and administration of vaccines, which are already rolling out in highly developed countries like the United States, United Kingdom and Canada. “The national government can probably focus on employees of national government agencies and offices, beneficiaries of the (Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program) while the cities that can afford to procure vaccines can cater to city government employees, barangay officials, senior citizens and other residents,” Treñas said. Win: Prioritize teachers In Manila, Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian said the government must include public school teachers and personnel among the first people to be vaccinated as they could be considered front-liners. He said inoculating teachers would be a “crucial step” in ensuring the safety of schools and build confidence in the gradual resumption of in-person classes. According to the senator, the country’s more than 900,000 teachers and nonteaching staff have been serving as front-liners to ensure the continued education of more than 22 million students during the pandemic. The teachers risked their health and safety as they distributed learning materials to about 87 percent of public school students. Gatchalian said that reopening the schools should be a priority to prevent a worsening of what he termed as a “learning crisis” hounding the country. He cited the poor performance of Filipino students in recent global educational assessments, such as the Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) 2018, the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2019, and the Southeast Asia Primary Learning Metrics (SEA-PLM) 2019. A policy brief from the United Nations had identified the suppression of the virus transmission as the “most significant step” to hasten the reopening of schools. Case tally On Wednesday, the Department of Health logged 1,196 new COVID-19 cases, raising the national tally to 464,004. Quezon City had the most number of new infections (123), followed by Rizal (84), Manila (74), Davao (54) and Batangas (49). Another 564 patients have recovered from COVID-19, bringing the total number of survivors to 429,972. The death toll, however, rose to 9,048 after 27 patients succumbed to the severe respiratory disease. The recoveries and deaths left the country with 24,984 active cases, of which 81.8 percent were mild, 9.5 percent asymptomatic, 0.32 percent moderate, 2.9 percent severe and 5.5 percent critical.  —WITH REPORTS FROM MELVIN GASCON AND JOVIC YEE   Read more: newsinfo.inquirer.net   Editorial Grand disarray Just as soon as the face shield policy was announced, the DOH itself muddled up the directive by issuing exemptions to the blanket rule. Those who already have difficulty breathing through a face mask may not wear a face shield, it said. Now it is also considering exempting cyclists after howls of protest from bikers who said that using a face shield above their face mask would obstruct their view and make it even more difficult for them to breathe. The cities of Valenzuela and Pasig have gone ahead and exempted bikers, recognizing the dangers of using a face shield while cycling. Various departments are set to issue a joint order to list down other exemptions to the face shield rule. Shouldn't this move have been better done before the face shield policy was mandated in the first place? Some nine months from the beginning of the pandemic, the administration's knee-jerk, topsy-turvy policy making remains emphatically in place, where evaluations and caveats are done after a decision has been peremptorily announced. The lack of rigor, the poor planning, the inability to talk among themselves to fine-tune policy—administration officials, it seems, are unperturbed by the grand disarray at the top that further vexes and confuses an already anxious public. Remember the motorcycle barriers? Compounding the incompetence is the unwillingness to apply the rules to themselves and their kind. Read full story: opinion.inquirer.net       Copyright © 2020 PHILIPPINE DAILY INQUIRER, All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: P.O. Box 2353, Makati Central Post Office, 1263 Makati City, Philippines.   Share    Tweet    Share    Forward  Preferences  |  Unsubscribe