An official of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) on Saturday said the government was looking at excluding beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino program, or 4Ps, from receiving subsidies under the antipoverty program if they do not get vaccinated against COVID-19.
The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), which implements the program, however, maintains that vaccination remains voluntary and is not covered by the 4Ps law.
Citing reports from mayors around the country, DILG spokesperson Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya said “many” of the more than 4 million 4Ps beneficiaries had not been vaccinated against COVID-19 and some even refused inoculation.
To remedy this situation, the DILG has proposed to “disincentivize” the unvaccinated among the government aid recipients, he said.
“The 4Ps is called a conditional transfer because before you can get your regular subsidy from the government, you have to meet certain conditions,” Malaya said in an interview with dzBB radio. “We will just add another condition which is vaccination.”
“If they will not get vaccinated, they will not receive any 4Ps subsidy from the government,” he said.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire had said that the government is looking at implementing a vaccine mandate as it wants to achieve herd immunity.
It isn’t clear whether the proposed mandate was for the entire population or just for certain sectors as some doctors are advocating.
Vergeire said that other means to boost jab acceptance, especially in the provinces, had already been used, such as information drives, incentives and house-to-house vaccination.
Reacting to the reports about the support for mandated vaccination of the Department of Health (DOH), Vice President Leni Robredo said it would be more effective to encourage Filipinos to overcome their hesitancy to get their shots.
“We have seen in our programs that when you give incentives, people agree on their own free will and I think, it’s the more effective way,” Robredo said, citing her own campaign to get as many people vaccinated as possible.
She said her office had set up a Vaccine Express which had gone to the remote places to vaccinate people. It has also volunteered to vaccinate overseas Filipino workers, Robredo said.
Malaya said the proposal was discussed by Interior Secretary Eduardo Año during a meeting of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases. It was also submitted to the DSWD for comment.
Based on the DILG’s discussion with the DSWD, Malaya said the health component condition was “flexible.”
“We are in a public health emergency,” he explained. “The law can be interpreted to mean that [the mandatory vaccination] is for the health of the family and can be added as a component of the 4Ps.”According to Malaya, the move was part of the DILG’s efforts to ramp up the vaccination rate especially outside Metro Manila. (© Philippine Daily Inquirer News)
