Ilonggo Senator Franklin Drilon “strongly opposed” the Department of the Interior and Local Government’s (DILG) proposal to make COVID-19 vaccination mandatory for Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) beneficiaries.
According to the veteran lawmaker, the proposed “no vaccine, no ayuda” was “absolutely unacceptable, inhuman, and callous.”
“It pains me to see a government that has shown nothing but a total callous disregard for the vulnerable sector of our society. It is yet another display of the government’s callousness,” he said in a statement.
“It only shows that the DILG is detached from reality and unaware of the real plight of the poor,” the senator added.
Drilon called on the DILG to scrap the proposal and urged the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), the lead agency for the program, to “defend the 4Ps beneficiaries against the ‘iron fist’ of DILG.”
Drilon noted that vaccination is not part of the conditions that beneficiaries must fulfill before receiving assistance.
“It is contrary to the 4Ps law to withhold benefits or expel members who are not vaccinated. The DILG cannot just do that. That will be inhuman and totally insensitive,” he said.
The government’s flagship anti-poverty alleviation program has about 4.4 million Filipino families as beneficiaries since the time of the late President Benigno Aquino.
“We cannot assume that they are not vaccinated because they refused vaccines. They are not vaccinated because they have limited access to vaccines especially in the countryside or the roll out remains slow or the vaccines available are not what the people prefer,” Drilon said.
The senator agreed with Vice President Leni Robredo that the government should offer incentives to get people vaccinated rather than punish them.IMT
