{"id":263827,"date":"2020-08-02T23:24:39","date_gmt":"2020-08-03T03:24:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=263827"},"modified":"2020-08-02T23:24:39","modified_gmt":"2020-08-03T03:24:39","slug":"npa-rebels-can-get-free-covid-19-vaccine-shots-prrd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/08\/02\/npa-rebels-can-get-free-covid-19-vaccine-shots-prrd\/","title":{"rendered":"NPA rebels can get free Covid-19 vaccine shots: PRRD"},"content":{"rendered":"
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FILE: President Rodrigo Roa Duterte talks to the people after holding a meeting with the Inter-Agency Task Force on the Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) core members at the Malago Clubhouse in Malaca\u00f1ang on August 2, 2020. KING RODRIGUEZ\/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 Communist rebels can get free vaccine against coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) but it does not mean that the fighting is over, President Rodrigo R. Duterte said Sunday.<\/p>\n

In a late night public address, Duterte said he would be willing to give members of the New People\u2019s Army (NPA) free vaccine shots for as long as they show up without arms.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow\u00a0itong mga<\/em>\u00a0(these) NPA, if they really want to get their shots free, they can always line up. And I will ask now the military and the police to be forgiving.\u00a0\u2018Pag nakapila sila doon \u2014 wala namang armas<\/em>\u00a0(If they line up without arms) just to get the shots, give it to them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Duterte earlier said the police and the military would be among the first to receive vaccines, noting that he needs \u201ca strong backbone.\u201d<\/p>\n

He guaranteed that underprivileged Filipinos would also be prioritized.<\/p>\n

The Covid-19 vaccines would be distributed for free, except for rich people and drug personalities, he added.<\/p>\n

The military would be tapped to lead the distribution of Covid-19 vaccines.<\/p>\n

He made the pronouncement as he admitted that he could not trust local officials in distributing the vaccines.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, he urged police personnel to clean up their precincts as he wanted their stations to serve as Covid-19 vaccination centers.<\/p>\n

\u201cKayong mga pulis, makinig kayo sa akin ha, linisan ninyo \u2018yang presinto ninyo<\/em>\u00a0and make it ready for the day (Hey you police, listen to me, clean your precincts and make it ready for the day). I pray that it would come.\u00a0Iyon na lang mga<\/em>\u00a0police station\u00a0mas malapit at saka marami<\/em>\u00a0(Police stations are nearer and many),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Wait till December<\/strong><\/p>\n

Despite depleted funds, Duterte said he would find a way to source funds for the government\u2019s Covid-19 response.<\/p>\n

He also appealed to the public to wait until the end of the year for a vaccine to be made available.<\/p>\n

\u201cMga kababayan ko, tiis nalang ng konti.<\/em>\u00a0By December\u00a0nandiyan na<\/em>\u00a0(My countrymen, hang in there a little longer. By December, it will be there),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said he has always been praying to God for a vaccine.<\/p>\n

Once a vaccine is available, Duterte said he expects immunization to be finished in a week\u2019s time.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can finish if we have the vaccines and if it is delivered expeditiously. I think that in about one week\u2019s time,\u00a0tapos na<\/em>\u00a0(it\u2019s over),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He also expressed confidence that China would be among the first to develop a potential vaccine against Covid-19.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe in China because they are very conscientious and\u00a0hindi reklamador<\/em>\u00a0(complainers),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 Communist rebels can get free vaccine against coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) but it does not mean that the fighting …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":263828,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-263827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263827"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263827\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":263829,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263827\/revisions\/263829"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/263828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}