ANDANAR JOINS CALL TO SET ASIDE POLITICS, FOCUS ON COVID-19 VACCINE ROLL OUT PREPARATION

Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Secretary Martin Andanar on Thursday called on political leaders and the public to refrain from painting malicious political influences on the government’s COVID-19 response.

He instead enjoined them to help in uplifting the lives of Filipinos, while the country continues to take action on curbing the spread of the virus and awaiting the roll out of the vaccine.

“Dili man gud maayo nga istoryahan ning politika karun. Ang istoryahan ug i-focus nato ang vaccination campaign [It’s not good to talk about politics right now. The focus of our discussions should be on the vaccination campaign],” he said. He cited that encouraging 70% of the Filipino population to get vaccinated should be the priority to attain herd immunity, and for the country to be able to get back to having a strong economy.

“An economy can only be strong if you have a healthy population, a healthy workforce. [Only] then can we go back to our vision of having a comfortable life for every Filipino,” he said.

While waiting for the vaccine, the PCOO chief stressed the need to address the current 47% vaccine hesitancy among Filipinos through intensified information drive on its safety and efficacy. Secretary Andanar emphasized the need