Former presidential adviser for entrepreneurship Joey Concepcion on Tuesday said the government should not be blamed if unvaccinated people decide not to wear their face masks and get severe diseases due to COVID-19, as booster shots have been made available to the general public.

Concepcion, who is part of President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr.'s Private Sector Advisory Council, reiterated his call for people to receive their booster shots now that Marcos has signed an executive order allowing the voluntary use of face masks in outdoor settings.

With this, Concepcion said people should be given the option whether or not they want to protect themselves against COVID-19 by getting vaccinated or boosted, but it should not be the government’s fault if they get hospitalized or die because of the virus.

“Those people who want to take a risk and would not take the vaccine, fine. But if something happens to you, that’s your own lookout. You cannot blame the government for that because we’ve provided you all the vaccines for boosters. They will expire this year if you don’t take it,” he said during the Pandesal Forum.

“Wala na tayong (We don't have a) mandate, so let’s give them the choice. If they decide not to use [face masks] and they get sick, hospitalized or even die, that’s not the fault of the government, right? That’s the fault of somebody willing to take the higher risk,” he added.

Prior to Marcos’ approval of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases’ (IATF) recommendation of the voluntary masking, Department of Health (DOH) officer-in-charge Maria Rosario Vergeire maintained that they still preferred people to keep on wearing their face masks.

The IATF earlier proposed to make the wearing of face masks optional in open spaces or non-crowded outdoor areas with good ventilation, provided that the COVID-19 booster uptake in the country improves.

However,  the EO states that "not fully vaccinated individuals, senior citizens, and immunocompromised individuals are highly encouraged to wear their masks and physical distancing will be observed at all times."

The DOH said Monday that currently, the term “fully vaccinated” still means completing the primary series of COVID-19 vaccines either through a one or two-dose vaccine.

Based on the DOH’s national COVID-19 vaccination dashboard, 72.7 million Filipinos are now fully vaccinated against COVID-19, while 18.5 million have received their booster shots.

During the same forum, OCTA Research Fellow Fr. Nicanor Austriaco also suggested the removal of face masks in schools, citing an experience of a medical analyst that masking allegedly “hurts” the children.

“Our children have suffered for two years. They were one of the longest in the whole world of [affected by] a lockdown without school… They have returned to mask-to-mask education and we must move from mask-to-mask to real face-to-face for our children,” he said.

The Philippines resumed in-person classes during the opening of the School Year 2022-2023 on August 22, with students and teachers allowed to participate despite their vaccination status.

Austriaco said that if not all Filipinos decide to receive their primary vaccine series and boosters, then masks should still be optional and they be allowed “to live as adults with the consequences of their choices in order to protect our children.”

Vergeire refuted this claim, stressing that face masks protect children from COVID-19.

“I think the DOH thinks otherwise. Masking is protecting our children. ‘Pag tinignan po natin, ang ating mga kabataan sila ay pumapasok na ngayon sa eskwelahan [the children now go to school] so there is more interaction, there is more mobility,” she said at a press briefing on Tuesday.

Only 43% of people aged 5 to 11 had received the primary vaccine series, indicating that immunization rates are still low among the younger population, Vergeire said.

“Having said that, ‘yung mask po makakatulong [masks help],” she added, as she urged parents and guardians to still have their children wear face masks when going to school.

Last week, Vergeire said that students and teachers attending face-to-face classes are still required to wear face masks as classes are held indoors.

The Department of Education has yet to give a comment about the new policy, but spokesperson Atty. Michael Poa earlier said they will abide by whatever the Office of the President and the DOH direct them to do. —KG/VBL, GMA News