Mayor Isko Moreno elbows bump with a recipient of the housing program in Baseco. With him are Vice Mayor HOney Lacuna and (behind Moreno) city engineer Armand Andres. Photo by JERRY S. TAN
Manila launches ‘mass vaccination nights’
THE weekend saw the launching of ‘mass vaccination nights’ in the city of Manila as 720 workers in the public markets and drivers of public utility conveyances got jabbed during night time, signalling the start of the ramped-up inoculation program using mostly the 400,000 Sinovac doses it purchased from China.
Mayor Isko Moreno personally visited the vaccination sites where Vice Mayor Honey Lacuna, Manila Health Department chief Dr Poks Pangan and assistant MHD chief Dr. Ed Santos were around to also personally supervise the vaccination processes, ensuring that they are both orderly and fast.
Lacuna said the vaccination was done in Recto, Manila from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. to cater to those who cannot make it to the vaccination sites during daytime since they are preoccupied with their work. These include vendors, tricycle and pedicab drivers and market workers.
According to Moreno, also catered to were market workers involved in the loading and unloading of goods from other parts of Metro Manila, Northern Luzon, Central Luzon and Southern Luzon as well.
Moreno also announced that first dose mass vaccinations will also be done the whole day today (July 5) where 3,000 doses await those from the A1 to A5 priority groups in the four designated shopping malls and 1,500 doses in the 18 schools.
Meanwhile, Moreno and Lacuna also broke ground and awarded the first housing unit of the Baseco housing project called, ‘BaseCommunity.’
City Engineer Armand Andres said each unit is about 42 square meters which is even bigger than condo units in private buildings and is just one of many housing programs under the Moreno administration, among the Tondominiums 1 and 2 and the Binondominium.
In granting the housing units, Moreno said he would like to give dignity to the poor by providing them a home that they can proudly call their own and one which is not like a pigeon hall.
The units under the city government plans come complete with two bedrooms, a kitchen, toilet and living room.
Himself a former squatter, Moreno saw the need to provide certainty among the poor that they have a permanent roof over their heads, recalling what his late mother would always say: “kung aso nga naghahanap ng masisilungan, tao pa kaya?”
