NARVACAN, Ilocos Sur – The League of Municipalities of the Philippines (LMP) has urged President Duterte to classify mayors as frontliners and include them in the government’s priority list for COVID-19 vaccination.
“Mayors are active frontliners taking the lead in ensuring the health and medical wellbeing of their constituents. They also supervise social amelioration programs and the distribution of relief goods to affected constituents and in overseeing the functionality of the local IATFs, including the operations of isolation facilities and the municipality’s Temporary Treatment and Monitoring Facilities (TTMF) as mandated by the national government,” LMP National President Mayor Luis “Chavit” Singson here said in a letter to the Chief Executive.
Singson lamented that in the course of this global pandemic, local chief executives and other local leaders are being infected and reinfected while some are hospitalized and worst, a number have lost their lives in the course of their public service.
“Mayors first and foremost ensure that they are strong and healthy to protect their people and fight for them. People rely on their chief executives to safeguard their communities. A COVID-infected mayor is tantamount to a disruption in the management of COVID-response in the locality, thus this appeal to include our mayors in the vaccination priority list,” he added.
The leadership of the LMP, which is the organization of 1,400 municipal mayor throughout the country, is confident that Duterte will heed the LMP’s plea as he was a local chief executive of Davao City.
“The reality on the ground demands the urgency of vaccinating our LCEs. In most cases in rural areas, people would go to the mayor before rushing to the doctor in times of emergencies. When they feel sick, when they have financial problems, when they are troubled, people would go to their mayor. And during this pandemic, our mayors never stop working 24/7, exposing themselves and their families to the dangers of the COVID virus,” Singson said.
