Soriano to Cebu cops: Register for vaccination with your LGUs

Cebu Police Provincial Office (CPPO)

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Police Colonel Engelbert Soriano, director of the Cebu Police Provincial Office (CPPO), has directed all policemen in Cebu province to already register for vaccination with their respective local government units (LGUs).

Soriano said they were given clearance to do so by their national headquarters since no vaccine allocation has been made for the Philippine National Police (PNP) yet.

“Very generous naman yung LGU eh, kasi lahat ng nakausap ko na mayors, kasama talaga sa priority nila yong local police nila. So, good news yun para sa amin,” he said.

(I think the LGUs are very generous because the mayors that I have talked with told me that policemen are among the priority in their vaccination rollout. So, that is very good news.)

Soriano said that while vaccination is not mandatory, policemen are encouraged to have themselves vaccinated for their protection.

In a message which he delivered during the simultaneous celebration of the 123rd Philippine Independence on Saturday, June 12, Soriano said that policemen are supposed to be part of the priory group A4 for the COVID-19 vaccines.

But to date, many of them remain unprotected against the deadly infection, even if they are on the frontline in the campaign against the spread of COVID-19.

And as soon as they receive their jabs, Cebu policemen are asked to immediately log into the system and update their PNP COVID-19 Data (CODA).

Soriano said that he is already in talks with the Cebu provincial government on the need to vaccinate the police including those who are assigned in the province’s 50 police stations.

If he were to have his way, he wanted all of the 2, 320 policemen in the province vaccinated this year.

But they don’t have to wait for the Capitol to release their vaccination schedule if they could already register for jabs with their respective LGUs, Soriano said.

“Ang stat ng PNP national hindi 100%, I think 93 something percent ang willing. Wala pang data kung ilang percent ang willing dito sa amin sa CPPO. Pero the way I see it, dahil sa naririnig ng mga kasama natin, tingin ko willing na rin yung lahat na makipag vaccine,” Soriano said.

(Based on the national PNP statistics, not all of the policemen want the vaccine. Only about 93 percent. And we still do not have data as to the number of Cebu policemen who are willing to have their jabs.  But I way I see it, this is because of the misinformation on the vaccination campaign, but I am hopeful that all of them are willing to be vaccinated [given the right information].)

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