As Negros Oriental continues to ramp up its vaccination rollout against coronavirus disease 2019, the Department of the Interior & Local Government in the Province also continues to hold its Resbakuna town hall meetings to address vaccine hesitancy.
DILG Provincial Chief Farah Gentuya, in an interview, said they have conducted 11 town hall meetings at the city/municipality level as of Nov. 18.
These were held in Bais City, Guihulngan City, and the towns of Bacong, Basay, Dauin, Mabinay, San Jose, Siaton, Sibulan, Vallehermoso, and Zamboanguita.
The term resbakuna is a combination of the Filipino slang resbak which means to gather reinforcements or back-up (or “wrest back”) to take revenge on someone/something, and the word bakuna (vaccination) against CoViD-19.
Negros Oriental has a total of six cities and 19 municipalities, all of which will be visited soon by a composite team of representatives from various government agencies.
Meanwhile at the barangay level, Bais City has conducted the meetings in all of its 35 villages, while Bayawan City also logged a 100-percent accomplishment in all of its 28 barangays, Gentuya said, citing records from the DILG provincial office.
The municipalities of Amlan and La Libertad, and Canlaon City have not yet conducted any meeting at the barangay level, while the other local government units have started holding Resbakuna meetings in a few villages.
The town hall meetings were started a few months ago to promote and increase awareness on the benefits of the Covid-19 vaccine, Gentuya said.
The province of Negros Oriental was tagged by the Department of Health in Region 7 as having the slowest inoculation rollout among the four provinces in Central Visayas.
Gentuya said the Resbakuna town hall meetings are jointly undertaken in Negros Oriental by the DILG, DOH, the Provincial Health Office, and the Philippine Information Agency, among other agencies. (Judy F. Partlow/PNA)
