Galvez urged to move PDLs up in vaccination priority list
MANILA, Philippines — A lawmaker on Tuesday urged the official leading the government's coronavirus inoculation program to move up the priority of persons deprived of liberty (PDLs) who are cramped in jails and correctional facilities across the country.
Detained Sen. Leila de Lima in a letter to vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. emphasized the alarming conditions in Philippine jails and detention facilities, where congestion poses a challenge to physical distancing and poor nourishment and sanitation leaves PDLs more vulnerable to contracting COVID-19.
READ: US report: Overcrowding and harsh conditions led to COVID-19 spread among inmates
She added that "limited access to health services means that there is a greater chance that PDLs develop severe or possibly fatal cases of COVID-19 with very little support or treatment available."
"I implore the IATF to take into consideration the particular vulnerabilities in the case of the PDLs as justification for their immediate vaccination," De Lima said.
She also urged Galvez and other members of the government's pandemic task force to consider especially the vaccination priority of PDLs in areas with high coronavirus incidence.
“Many of our PDLs in our jails are still being tried and have yet to be convicted of the charges against them," De Lima said. "Thus, they still enjoy the constitutional presumption of innocence. It would be yet another injustice for them if they were to be infected by COVID-19 in spite of the availability of inoculation."
Mandela Rules
In making her case, De Lima, a former justice secretary, also highlighted the following items under the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for Treatment of Prisoner or the Mandela Rules:
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The provision of health care for prisoners is a State responsibility. Prisoners should enjoy the same standards of health care that are available in the community, and should have access to necessary health-care services free of charge without discrimination on the grounds of their legal status.
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Health-care services should be organized in close relationship to the general public health administration and in a way that ensures continuity of treatment and care, including for HIV, tuberculosis and other infectious diseases, as well as for drug dependence.
Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra previously said that his department would push to include inmates and detainees in the fifth priority group or A5 along with the indigent population.
The government is currently vaccinating those who fall under the A1 to A4 priority sectors which are composed of medical frontliners, senior citizens, people with comorbidities, and most workers.
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