The vaccination rate against COVID-19 in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) remains a low 28 percent, an official of National Commission on Muslim Filipinos (NCMF) said on Sunday.

In a radio interview, Jun Datu Ramos of the NCMF Bureau of External Relations said despite the increase in its vaccination rate, the BARMM still has the lowest number of vaccinations in the country.

"Based on the data from the DOH, the vaccination in BARMM has not yet reached 30 percent while the other regions have 70 percent or more. For example, the NCR has a rate of 114 percent and Ilocos is 86.4 percent," he said.

"Davao Region and Northern Mindanao both have around 74 percent vaccinated. Soccsksargen has 61 percent vaccinated while BARMM only has 28 percent, which was previously as low as 11 percent prior to the launch of the national vaccination days," he added.

Ramos explained that the vaccine hesitancy in Muslim population was not caused by culture and religion.

"Many Muslim religious leaders locally and abroad provide their opinions from qualified Muslim legal scholar that the COVID-19 vaccines are Halal. So I think the vaccine hesitancy of the Muslim Filipinos comes from lack of awareness or understanding on the vaccines and not because of our religion and culture," he said.

Ramos stressed the need for government officials to coordinate with leaders of the traditional Muslim groups to help the government spread information about the vaccines.

"The Muslims do not listen to outsiders and there are areas where they listen more to their sultan compared to the mayor and councilors," he said.

"They might also not be able to understand the importance of vaccination if it will not be explained to them using their dialect. They only hear it in Filipino or English, so it is really difficult," he added. Robina Asido/DMS