By Earl Jed Roque/PNA
MANILA — The Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) is ready to help the Department of Health (DOH) in its information campaign to allay public fear over vaccination amid the Dengvaxia scare.
“All national government media agencies are ready to assist DOH,” PCOO Secretary Martin Andanar said in a message to the Philippine News Agency (PNA) on Thursday.
Andanar said PCOO Undersecretary Lorraine Marie T. Badoy will meet with the DOH to discuss the immunization communication program.
Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said Health Secretary Francisco Duque “requested PCOO to help in the information campaign.”
The DOH has urged the public to have their children vaccinated against measles following its declaration of a measles outbreak in the National Capital Region, Luzon, and Eastern Visayas.
President Rodrigo R. Duterte, earlier, urged parents not to let the scare over the controversial anti-dengue vaccine, Dengvaxia, stop them from having their children vaccinated for other infectious diseases.
The House of Representatives’ committee on good government and public accountability, as well as the committee on health on Wednesday, recommended the filing of graft and technical malversation charges against former president Benigno Aquino III, former budget secretary Florencio “Butch” Abad, and former health secretary Janette Garin over the Dengvaxia controversy.
