By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga

Negros Occidental Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson revealed yesterday that a total of 600 or 30 percent of the 3,000 strong employees of the provincial government are still unvaccinated.

Lacson, however, said he will not issue any executive order to compel capitol employees to be vaccinated.

“We will just have to continue convincing our employees to have themselves vaccinated,” the governor said.

He added that he knows that other local government units all over the country are coming up with policies that encourage vaccination.

Earlier, the municipal governments of Don Salvador Benedicto (DSB) and Toboso announced that as part of their efforts to stop the spread of coronavirus in their jurisdictions they issued orders mandating employees to get the COVID-19 jabs.

DSB Mayor Marxlen Dela Cruz also said that effective January 2022 he will not renew the contracts of job order employees of the municipal government who are unvaccinated.

Toboso Mayor Richard Jaojoco announced on his Facebook account on Sunday, December 5, that employees of the municipal government are required to submit a vaccination card or a negative RT-PCR test result for work effective December 16.

But Lacson pointed out that the government cannot make it mandatory, rather they could come up with policies that encourage local government employees to get vaccinated./DGB, WDJ