Duterte wants population protection before allowing F2F classes

MANILA – President Rodrigo Duterte will only allow the resumption of face-to-face (F2F) classes once the country achieves population protection against the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19), Malacañang said on Tuesday.

Duterte wants to make sure that many Filipinos are already inoculated against Covid-19 before he allows children to go to schools, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said.

“Ang sabi po ni Presidente, nais niya munang makitang mabakunahan ang taumbayan (The President wants to see his countrymen vaccinated.) I think he’s referring to at least containment or population protection), Roque said in a virtual press conference,

This, after Duterte on Monday rejected the Department of Education’s (DepEd) proposal to resume F2F classes even in areas with low risk of Covid-19 transmission.

Duterte, in a public address delivered Monday night in Davao City, said he would not “gamble” school children’s health by allowing the resumption of in-person classes, considering the threat posed by the Delta coronavirus variant.

Prior to Duterte’s latest remarks, Malacañang in April raised the possibility that the pilot implementation of F2F classes might be conducted in August this year.

DepEd Secretary Leonor Briones said she respects Duterte’s “very well-informed” decision and acknowledged that it is best to abide by the professional knowledge of the medical experts.

Briones said DepEd would instead use technology to deliver classes for the school year 2021-2022.

For the school year 2020-2021 that opened in October 2020, DepEd conducted classes through online learning, modular learning, television and radio-based instruction, and blended learning which is a combination of two or more methods of learning.

National Task Force against Covid-19 chief implementer and vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. said half of the 40 million Covid-19 vaccines developed by Washington-based pharmaceutical giant Pfizer will be used for children under the 12 to 15 age bracket.

Galvez also expressed confidence earlier that the government’s population protection target is still achievable by the end of the year.

The government aims to inoculate up to 70 million this year to achieve population protection.