I HEAR complaints about governors sequestering the vaccination rollout to the disadvantage of mayors who are not their political allies. I also hear mayors and governors lamenting the slowness of the approval process of the tripartite agreements they signed with suppliers, making some citizens suspect that perhaps Malacañang is deliberately throwing monkey wrenches to undermine the political fortunes of these local officials and to benefit whoever will be anointed by the Palace in next year's elections.

It is quite easy to turn vaccines into partisan political weapons, particularly in an election year. Vaccination rollouts can easily be projected as under the munificence of politicians by being the faces behind the vaccine distribution and painting their opponents as the incompetent officials who failed to deliver.

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