Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 15)— Malacañang on Tuesday denied the national government has been neglecting Mindanao and other parts of the country in its COVID-19 vaccine distribution.
“Hindi po totoo iyan (That’s not true),” Roque said in a briefing.
“Bagama’t sinasabi natin na binigyan ng prayoridad ang Metro Manila plus (While we are saying NCR Plus was given priority), that’s only to the extent of around 38% of the vaccines,” he pointed out. “But the remaining balance are still delivered to the rest of the Philippines… So hindi po totoo iyan na ginipit natin ang ibang parte ng Pilipinas (So it’s not true that we’re neglecting other parts of the Philippines).”
Roque was reacting to an earlier statement of Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez, who complained about the supposed unfair vaccine allocations in the country.
Rodriguez has repeatedly appealed to the Inter-Agency Task Force to send more vaccines to Cagayan de Oro — which in May was tagged by the OCTA Research group as an “area of concern” amid the pandemic.
Roque, meanwhile, vowed the government will deploy additional COVID-19 vaccines to areas where infections are rising.
