Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief Police General Debold Sinas considers the opportunity to be one of the government’s priorities in the vaccination program against the Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) as a great benefit to their organization.
According to PNP Chief PGen. Sinas, the move of President Rodrigo R. Duterte to put the members of the security forces on the top list of the COVID-19 vaccination is the latter’s way to ensure that they will not infect anyone since they might be the ones to distribute the COVID-19 vaccine.
The police chief defended the security forces’ participation in the COVID-19 vaccine distribution to those who questioned it. He reasoned that they are there to ensure that peace and order will be implemented and that no one will steal the vaccine.
Meanwhile, the PNP clarified that the granting of aid to police officers infected with COVID-19 as stated in the initial directive issued is only on a case-to-case basis. All police frontliners positive with COVID-19 will be given cash assistance worth ₱50,000.
“Hindi naman pwedeng lahat kasi ‘yung iba naman is just asymptomatic. Wala namang problema iyon. Sayang tulong natin. May mga kasama kami na malala, ‘yung severe. Iyon ang tutulungan namin. (Not everyone will be given [the assistance] because others are just asymptomatic. There’s no problem there. Our help will just go to waste. We have colleagues with severe cases. They are the ones whom we will help).”
Based on the recent data of the PNP, almost 8,000 officers have tested positive for COVID-19 with 400 active cases, 7,000 recoveries, and 26 fatalities. – Report from Bea Bernardo
