Palace welcomes CBCP’s offer to use church as vaccination hub

MANILA – Malacañang on Thursday welcomed the offer made by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) to use Catholic churches as Covid-19 vaccination sites.

In a Palace press briefing, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said that although the Department of Health (DOH) has already designated fixed vaccination sites, more hubs would always be welcome.

“Kumpleto po ang plano ng DOH at ng ating National Task Force (NTF) kung paano mararating ang mga Pilipino kahit nasaan man sila (The DOH and our National Task Force has already completed how they are going to reach Filipinos wherever they live)…Although we welcome the offer of the Catholic church dahil siyempre po (because of course), the more facilities we have, the better,” he said.

Roque also described as “well-meaning” the declaration made by CBCP executives that they are willing to get vaccinated publicly to boost confidence in vaccines, but insisted that the government’s vaccine priority list should be followed.

“I know it’s well-meaning pero (but) I will leave the matter po the NTF at ang sabi ko nga po unahin natin yung (and as I said, we have to stick to our) order of priorities natin,” he said.

He noted that it is necessary for healthcare professionals to be the first in the government’s vaccine priority list as they are the experts when it comes to vaccines.

“Pag nakita nila ang mga doktor, mga nurses ay nagbabakuna, pagkakatiwalaan ng taongbayan naman ‘yan e. Of course, kahit mga celebrities, mga pari bakunahan, mas importante pa rin na makita nila yung nakakaintindi ng bakuna na unang nababakunahan (If they’ll find the doctors, nurses getting inoculated, people will trust the vaccines. Of course, even if celebrities and pritests will get vaccinated, it still important that they will see those who understand vaccines get inoculated),” he added.

In the priority list, second to healthcare workers are indigent senior citizens, followed by other senior citizens, indigent population, and uniformed personnel.

Roque said it is more important to improve the government’s “Explain, Explain, Explain” campaign to improve public trust toward the vaccination program.

“We all want to boost vaccine confidence, but I think the way to do it is through education which is what we do,” he said.

He also vowed to invite more health and science experts to counter anti-vaxxers or those who disagree with the use of vaccines.

“Mula po ngayon, palaging meron kaming eksperto na magsasabi at mag-e educate sa ating publiko tungkol sa bakuna (From now on, we will always invite experts to educate public about vaccines)” he said.

At a separate press conference, CBCP President Archbishop Romulo Valles announced that the bishops have decided to offer church facilities as vaccination centers or facilities related to the vaccination program.

Some executives of CBCP also said they are willing to get vaccinated against Covid-19 in public to alleviate the fear of those getting the vaccine.