I TOO, AM VULNERABLE

BY JEFF TOLENTINO, BS MLS ’22

for the future, power, politics, and connections would reign supreme over spoken promises.

This scenario may seem too predictive, but it may prove quite factual. One concrete example is the distribution of funds in the Social Amelioration Program of the government towards alleviating the hunger the Filipinos have felt during the start of the crisis. This supposedly aimed at granting P5,000 to P8,000 monthly cash subsidy to the marginalized sector of the society, yet when politics, power, and connection intercepts that of what is supposed to be good, it certainly always births corruption.

Another issue that has recently surfaced as to the vaccine allocation for each region is the alleged DOH Center for Development Western Visayas’ discrepancy in the number of vaccines that was received by the Iloilo City government. DOH records show that a total of 84, 224 doses of vaccines from Sinovac and AztraZeneca have been sent to the city for use. However only a total of 66, 544 doses were received, a discrepancy of 17, 680 doses.

In a letter sent by Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas to DOH Center for Development Western Visayas dated June 22, Treñas has asked for an explanation of where the 17, 680 are. Furthermore Treñas has emphasized that it is only proper for the City to demand for what is owed to the Ilonngos who have been waiting to be vaccinated.

The surge of the new cases for COVID-19 halfway through 2021 has sent cities all over the country to demand for additional vaccine allocations for their respective people. And during this time, every dose counts. A single dose could save a life that is imminent death and a thousand could do more. If this discrepancies in numbers prove true not only to the City of Iloilo, then whose demand of “I too, am vulnerable” has been answered that preceded that of the cries of those who needed them most?

Another problem that puts the marginalized sector on the brink of demise is that they comprise the majority of the vaccine hesitant group. A survey conducted by Pulse Asia showed that 61 percent of the Filipino population is hesitant on getting vaccinated over safety concerns.

This passively gives the elite section with their high medical literacy the upper hand as more of the supplies will be available for them. After all, it is more reasonable to give the cure to those who want it than to those who refuse it.

Although this bias is to be blamed solely on individual choices, this does not acquit the administration in its responsibility of providing for its citizens. President Rodrigo Duterte himself has asserted the importance of vaccines to the Filipino people when he openly discussed his intent in surrendering our sovereign rights over our exclusive economic zone in order to pack a partnership with China and secure a vaccine deal.

If it merits that much to give away our ancestral territories, it could only mean that the situation ahead requires this generation to survive. The government needs to enforce an iron hand in its priority on who gets vaccinated or not. Societal status plays no role when it comes to safety. Whether one belongs to the upper class of the marginalized sector both are of equal importance.

In a time of a crisis where life and death are in play, everyone wants to be saved.

And yet, each plea weighs differently. Some can be heard distinctly from the crowd, some are whispered, while others are never heard at all.

Whether there exists a stigma in vaccines or not, a gap to social status, it is an undeniable truth that being vaccinated equates to survival. If this country is to overcome this crisis, vaccines are an essential need to which every Filipino has the right avail. And when the time comes that the country is at the rope’s end, whose “I too, am vulnerable” will be heard most?