BY DOMINIQUE GABRIEL BAÑAGA
BACOLOD City – A labor group is urging the government to fast track workers’ vaccination against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Western Visayas.
General Alliance of Workers Association (GAWA) secretary-general Wennie Sancho said they reached out to labor representatives in Iloilo regarding the lack of vaccines for workers.
Sancho said they also wrote the regional and national inter-agency task forces.
The labor leader cited data showing that in Negros Occidental, 1,444 businesses have closed down, while 725 in Iloilo. He said they were unable to adapt to the flexible working arrangement.
Sancho is hoping that the national government will agree with their request, pointing out that in Boracay Island alone, only 10 percent of their workforce has been vaccinated, and only 20 percent of the total businesses in the popular resort destination were operational.
In a separate interview over Aksyon Radyo-Bacolod, business group Metro Bacolod Chamber of Commerce and Industry is also making a similar call to the national government.
MBCCI chief executive officer Frank Carbon is hoping for an allocation from the national government to vaccinate those in the business sector.
Carbon urged the Regional Inter-Agency Task Force to approve their request ahead of the expected rollout of vaccines for the A4 category (other frontline economic workers) soon./PN
