By Robina Asido

President Rodrigo Duterte said he may agree if the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) decides to make vaccination against COVID-19 mandatory amid the continued vaccine hesitancy in some parts of the country."If the Task Force would decide to make it mandatory, I may agree with the Task Force if they decide to make it mandatory. It’s for public health," Duterte said during the Talk to The People on Monday night.

Duterte said unvaccinated people should choose whether they wanted to live longer or die early from complications of COVID-19.

“I mean no offense, but those who do not want to get vaccinated, it's easy. You choose, will you live longer or you want to die already. If COVID infected you, we do not yet know this Omicron. If you will be infected, there is nothing you can do," he said.

Duterte warned that he can compel those who do not want to get vaccinated "under the police power of the state."

"It’s actually to protect public, public health. The ministerial functions of government are: the government can issue measures that would protect public health, public safety, public order, it’s in the police state, it's in the category police state," he said.

"Now under the police power of the state, I can compel you," he added.

The government is trying to improve its low vaccination rate vs COVID-19. As of November 29, the Department of Health said 35, 898, 392 are fully vaccinated while 46, 274, 962 received the first dose.

Most of the areas with vaccine hesitancy are in Mindanao, the government said last month.

In a public briefing on Monday, Lanao Del Sur Gov. Mamintal Adiong, Jr. admitted the COVID-19 vaccination is low due to vaccine hesitancy."Actually it's painful to admit but our vaccination rate is just 8.7 (percent) or 60,500 only. That is why we now deployed our health workers in the field for the national vaccination and we hope that the people will participate in the vaccination," he said.

Adiong said the local government is having difficulty convincing their people because of fake news about the COVID-19 vaccination.

"The people are listening to the fake news that is why they do not want to get vaccinated. There is fake news that say people may die or something may happen to them after two years. That is why it is difficult for us to convince the people," he said.

Health Undersecretary Myrna Cabotaje said the government failed to achieve its target of three million jabs on the first day of the national vaccination day on Monday.

"We have hit 2.5 million jabs at 2,554,023, the exact figure as per our November 29, 2021 coverage. This is 2.5 times our average of one of one million which puts us on the top 5 spot worldwide in terms of jabs administered in a single day," she said.

Cabotaje said based on the reports, Region IV-A or Calabarzon with 366,000 jabs has the highest number of vaccinations. It is followed by Region III (Central Luzon), Region VI (Western Visayas), Region VII (Central Visayas) then Region V ( Bicol).

She said because of some challenges on the first day of the vaccination, Duterte directed the government to allow the vaccination of walk-in individuals.

"There have been reports of major challenges. There have been reports that some who walk-in were not given vaccinations. So the president ordered the vaccination of everyone. So, the directive is we allow walk-ins, everyone who arrives should be vaccinated," she added. Robina Asido/DMS