CEBU CITY, Cebu, July 29 (PIA) -- To boost the people's confidence and uptake of the vaccine against the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), Mayor Greman "Jojo" Solante of the Municipality of Tudela in Poro Island, Cebu said the local government unit's (LGU) information and education campaign (IEC) at the purok level is essential in the vaccination deployment.

During the Network Briefing News interview hosted by Presidential Communications Operations Office Sec. Martin Andanar on July 29, Solante said there was a low turnout at the beginning of the vaccination rollout.

Solante added that even though the people are being fetched from each of their barangays, the rate of denial of the vaccine was high.

"We changed strategies and pushed hard at the purok level through our information and education campaign which resulted in a rise in the number of our constituents availing of the free vaccination from the national government," he said. 

Now that the people are aggressive in getting vaccinated, Solante appealed to the national government for more vaccines to be supplied to their municipality.

The mayor said they have only inoculated about 3.3%  out of 11,306 individuals in the municipality as of July 28.

He said they are also currently building an infirmary hospital in their community since the nearest district hospital is about 30 kilometers away located in the Municipality of San Francisco.

With Tudela located in Poro Island at the northeastern part of mainland Cebu about 32 miles away from Cebu City, one needs to take a two-hour sea travel via fastcraft from Lapu-Lapu City.

There is also a two-hour travel on a Roll-on/Roll-off vessel from Danao City to the Camotes Group of Islands.

The distance of their town from mainland Cebu was a challenge, Solante noted, when procuring food, medicine, and other supplies for their constituents.

When the pandemic struck, Solante said their LGU formulated the "Bayad at Pabili Express," a local initiative in relation to the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) period where border control was implemented and no one was able enter other towns except for essential workers.

"What we did was we tapped two habal-habal (motorcycle-for-hire) drivers' organization and they are the ones who buy food, medicine, and supplies that our constituents need. We pick up locally stranded individuals three to four times a week at the quarantine hotels in Cebu and Cebu City so we also accept supplies from the city and mainland for our constituents," the mayor said. 

Before the pandemic, motorcycle drivers earned their livelihood by transporting people to different areas within the group of islands.

However, it was prohibited during the ECQ since social distancing was implemented to mitigate the spread of the virus.

To help the drivers, Solante tapped them to transport goods instead, which also included cash withdrawals from banks since there were no automated machines at that time in the Camotes Group of Islands. (IDC/PIA)