Gov: all Cagayan folks will get vaccine

By Oliver T. Baccay

TUGUEGARAO CITY, Cagayan – Gov. Manuel N. Mamba here announced Cagayanos will receive vaccination against the deadly Covis-19 once it is available in the country. 
    The governor said the provincial government should not only be dependent on the national government's share but must find ways and means to ensure its access on the vaccines to bring back the usual economic activities in the province.
    "Other countries have already started with their vaccination programs. We will try to access one of these as early as possible and we will all receive vaccination, no prioritization," Mamba said.
    He added he was willing to be the first to receive vaccination as long as it is being approved by the Food and Drug Administration. 
    Mamba said he is willing to allot P500 million budget for the purchase of vaccines which are from the cash donations of different government agencies as well as the savings from the 2020 budget.
    "We have a lot of fund sources but we will see if these can be utilized for the purchase of the vaccines," Mamba said. 
    He urged local government units to also allot budget to purchase their vaccines to augment and supply from provincial and national governments.
    "We cannot do this alone. The national government has already allotted budget for the purchase of the vaccines, we also have ours but the LGUs should also have their counterparts so that we can achieve our goal that all Cagayanos will be vaccinated to eventually free us from this pandemic," the governor stated. 
    He also said the provincial government is willing to seek for loan grants if the budget of the province will not be sufficient to purchase the vaccine for all. -- PIA-Cagayan