The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) 12 showed solid support to the country’s call to expedite and intensify vaccination program against COVID-19 as the Department mobilized its manpower as logistics support and converged to other national agencies through monitoring of the actual vaccination in the region.

DOLE is grouped with the Office of Civil Defense, Departments of Health, Tourism, Interior and Local Government, the Philippine Coast Guard, and the 73rd Infantry Battalion, Philippine Army.

Assistant Regional Director Arlene Bisnon who represented RD Raymundo Agravante, led the monitoring of vaccination in sites which include Barangay Poblacion of Glan, Sarangani, Barangay Small Margus (Glan), KCC Convention Center (General Santos City), Polomolok Municipal Gymnasium (South Cotabato), municipality of Malapatan and Maasim in Sarangani, Province. Also, Provincial Director Marjorie Latoja took the lead in monitoring of the said vaccination in Cotabato Province.

Further, DOLE-Government Internship Program (GIP) Chila Labor Profiler, Mission Race, and SPES beneficiaries were deployed regionwide to augment the manpower of the DOH and LGUs especially in monitoring and encoding the essential information of the vaccinees.

After the three-day national vaccination, the DOLE 12 through its deployed manpower in vaccination sites recorded 5,123 individuals for Cotabato Province, 28,538 (General Santos City), 2,133 (Sarangani), 141,141 (South Cotabato), and 2,361 for Sultan Kudarat Province.

“The turn-out of the vaccination among different categories was overwhelming. This is good news not only to the government but also to the private sector as more workers trooped to different vaccination sites to be inoculated,” said ARD Bisnon.

On 24 November 2021, President Rodrigo Roa Duterte signed the Presidential Proclamation No. 1253-2021 or the Declaration of 29 November to 01 December as Bayanihan, Bakunahan National COVID-19 Vaccination Days with the goal to vaccinate at least seventy percent (70%) of the total population including individuals aged 12 to 17.

The second leg of three-day National Vaccination is scheduled on 20-22 of December 2021. End/CDGamboa