MANILA – President Rodrigo R. Duterte stated that vaccine hesitancy is still high in percentage among Muslim communities in Mindanao.
“For the information of everybody, in Mindanao, the Muslim community are resisting the bakuna (vaccines),” Duterte said during his prerecorded Talk to the People aired on Monday night.
Duterte made the statement concerning low vaccine uptake after 100 passengers bound for Zamboanga were stranded at North Harbor Terminal 4 due to the government’s “no vaccination, no ride” policy.
“I am not confident about their taking—the allowing the vaccines into their bodies because I think it’s something more of religious belief,” he said. “Pero iyan ang tingin ko. Sa Mindanao ayaw talaga. Marami dyan ang (That’s how I see it. People in Mindanao don’t want to. Many of them are not vaccinated because) simply they do not want to.”
Meanwhile, the Department of Transportation (DOTr) and the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) have already facilitated the return of unvaccinated travelers to their hometowns.
According to the National Task Force Against Covid-19, among the 17 regions countrywide, the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao has the lowest vaccination rate, with only 25.22 percent or 769,604 individuals fully vaccinated out of a total targeted population of 70 percent or 3,051,196.
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