PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte would not mind vaccine dissenters die for as long as they don’t infect others.
A typical foul-mouthed President went as far as telling people wary of getting COVID-19 shots to “die five times” if they wanted to.
“May mga iba diyan na ayaw talaga magbakuna, eh ‘di okay na lang ‘yan sa akin. Ang problema kung makahawa ka. The problem with being a bravado, iyang hambog, sabihin mo ‘eh ayaw ko kasi hindi naman ako naniniwala diyan,” Duterte said in a televised speech.
“If I were to talk to you in the gutter language, sabihin ko sa iyo, pu*$&ng i^% mo, mamatay ka na kung gusto mo limang beses, ang problema ang mahawa mo, iyang ayaw pang mamatay, gusto pang magpasyal sa Luneta.”
Duterte is reacting to a recent survey that showed six out of 10 Filipinos are still wary of being vaccinated, amid doubt of efficacy and safety of the government’s choice of vaccines.
Vice President Leni Robredo earlier urged Duterte to be among the first to get vaccinated, to raise public confidence in the jabs. However, Duterte said that he would “waive” his slot in the vaccination drive while COVID-19 shots are scarce.
The Philippines aims to vaccinate 70 million people this year, but has only managed to inoculate 1.2 million Filipinos.
The country has been recording an average of 10,000 fresh cases of infections on a daily basis.