BY GILBERT P. BAYORAN
Senate majority floor leader Juan Miguel Zubiri raised the possibility yesterday that national and local officials to be elected in the 2022 elections may not be voted by a majority because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Citing survey results in the June 2021 Ulat ng Bayan of Pulse Asia, Zubiri said during a blended press conference that 46 percent of the respondents will not go out to vote because of the pandemic, while 36 percent will cast their votes and 19 percent are still undecided.
To achieve herd immunity by December this year, Zubiri said 450,704 individuals should be vaccinated each day.
As of yesterday, Zubiri said that 15 percent of the 77 million Filipinos had already been vaccinated, with 12 million fully inoculated and 14.1 million had their first dose.
“We have 142 days left starting Aug. 12 to Dec. 31 to vaccinate 62 million more Filipinos in order to achieve herd immunity,” Zubiri said.
“My fear is that if we are unable to meet our target by the end of the year, this does not only pose a bigger threat to the health, safety and lives of our people and our economy, but also to our electoral system,” he said.
“That is why, my advocacy is to vaccinate, vaccinate and vaccinate,” he stressed.
“We cannot blame them for their intention not to go to polling centers since life is most precious than voting,” Zubiri said, but expressed alarm over the result of the survey he had commissioned regarding the people’s response to the country’s vaccination program and the upcoming national elections.
He expressed fears that the leaders to be elected, from president down to councilor, will not have the votes of the majority.
In case the pandemic persists until 2022, Zubiri, who is the principal author of Republic Act 11525, or the Covid-19 Vaccination Law, cited some solutions to ensure the safe and effective conduct of the elections.
“The Comelec should address the administrative problems and ensure that proper health protocols in the election sites are in place through the issuance of resolutions, such as practicing health protocols in the election sites, or by the passage of a law extending the period of election beyond one day to avoid over-crowding in the polling precincts,” he said.
Zubiri added that the only solution is vaccination, which is the key to economic recovery.*
