Marikina Mayor Marcelino “Marcy” Teodoro on Friday stood by his decision to allow residents of Marikina who did not pre-register online to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

This came after angry netizens took to Marikina Public Information Office’s Facebook page to protest the “unfair” conduct of walk-in inoculations, as well as the alleged move by the city government to vaccinate residents outside the top 3 vaccine priority groups.

They also complained about glitches in the vaccine registration website, resulting in their failure to sign up for inoculations.

But Teodoro said it was expected for the system to crash due to the number of people registering in the website at the same time.

“Nag-ca-crash iyong server, sa dami ng pumapasok na data (A huge amount of data caused the server to crash), which is normal,” he told Rappler in an interview on Friday, April 9.

He defended the walk-in vaccinations, and said if people were not observing physical distancing they were reminded to do so.

Unlike Marikina, other cities in Metro Manila strictly prohibit walk-in vaccinations.

“As a matter of policy, I allow it. Bakit hindi mo ia-allow? Nag-walk-in, may comorbidity sila. Wala silang internet pero word of mouth (Why won’t I allow it? A person with comorbidity walked in. They had no internet but came in due to word of mouth),” Teodoro said.

“May times na nagkakadikit-dikit sila, pero pinaghihiwalay din naman. Malaki iyong site (There are times people stand close to each other, but we tell them to observe their distance. The vaccination site is huge),” Teodoro added.

Teodoro denied people outside the top 3 vaccine priority groups were allowed to receive a vaccine shot.

“Hindi naman. Ang in-allow natin, mga may comorbidities (Not true. We only allowed persons with comorbidities to take the shot),” Teodoro noted.

Current government guidelines allow the simultaneous vaccination of health frontline workers, senior citizens, and persons with comorbidities.

Teodoro however said they were unable to vaccinate senior citizens, as their supply jabs from Astrazeneca already ran out.

Around 5,000 to 6,000 people were inoculated on Friday, which Teodoro considered a success.

Marikina PIO’s Facebook page said walk-in vaccinations would no longer be allowed beginning April 12, but Teodoro told Rappler that the matter was still being discussed with city officials.

Marikina had 3,799 active COVID-19 cases as of Thursday, April 8, based on the data from the Department of Health. – Rappler.com