Earlier last March a mayor decided to get himself vaccinated. It was done ahead of the scheduled vaccination for his A4 category. Ahead of other people and groups deemed more of a priority for vaccination.
Many were quick to condemn him as someone who cut the line to prioritize himself. Many were quick to jump to the conclusion that he was someone who just wanted to be among the first in line to get the vaccine and who used his position to do just that.
We did not see it that way at the time. Instead we supported vaccination for such officials, realizing that many mayors and heads of local government units are also frontliners themselves.
And just recently the Inter-Agency Task Force has designated mayors and governors as among the priority groups for vaccination. They are now A1.5, a great leap from their previous A4 designation.
"Sila po talaga ang ating instrumento dito sa paglaban natin sa COVID-19... They may not be doctors, but they are equally frontliners dahil lahat po ng stratehiya natin, ang humaharap po ang, mga lokal na opisyales, si mayor at si governor," presidential spokesman Harry Roque said during a press briefing.
Some of us may not agree with the policies of our mayor or our governor, or may not even like them at all for whatever reason, political or otherwise, but this doesn’t change the fact that they play a very important role when it comes to administration.
It is the local executive who runs the show. He or she isn’t just tasked with continuing to administer the town, city, or province during this time of the pandemic but also to coordinate with the efforts of the national government to help fight COVID-19.
And while many medical and service frontliners are afforded some time off from the chaos when they go home or on furlough, heads of local government units never relinquish their role even as they go home. Even as they sleep they can still be called upon for whatever reason.
It might be a stretch to say that things will fall into chaos without the local executive, but things will definitely take longer and tasks will become more difficult without them.
This is why they have to be among the first to be vaccinated. Considering how late this decision was made, we just hope there are still enough vaccines to secure our frontliners in public office.