Senator Richard Gordon on Sunday expressed belief that the government was only diverting public attention away from its failure to properly address the COVID-19 pandemic when it chose to run after the mayors who skipped the line in the vaccination program. 

The Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) earlier issued a show-cause order to at least five mayors who skipped the government’s priority list and got themselves inoculated against COVID.

According to Gordon, mayors should not be sued since they are only doing their job as they face their constituents regularly on the ground. 

“Why does it seem like we are suing them? That’s their job. Why let the mayors go out there to their constituents defenseless?” Gordon asked out in a DZBB interview.

Gordon, who is also president of the Philippine Red Cross (PRC), said the government should have also sued the government officials got vaccinated for COVID-19 even before the arrival of the vaccines in the country.

“There are people in government who have been vaccinated even before the vaccines formally arrived. Why weren’t they apprehended?” he pointed out.

He said officials of the government’s task force against COVID-19 should evaluate themselves and check if they have done their part in addressing the pandemic properly instead. 

“Are you doing everything? Are we successful here? We are not succeeding,” the senator lamented.

Mayors, he said, should also be included in the people that should be prioritized for the COVID-19 vaccines so that there would be point persons in every locality.

“If they’re not doing their jobs, that’s when we should punish them,” Gordon pointed out.

Based on the government’s priority list, the vaccination rollout should prioritize frontline health care workers, senior citizens, remaining indigent population and uniformed personnel.