No law, no mandatory vaccination – DOJ

MANILA, Philippines — Although President Duterte can invoke the police power of the state to compel people to have themselves inoculated, he cannot penalize those who refuse to receive the anti-COVID vaccines, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said yesterday.

“The President correctly invoked police power as basis to compel anti-COVID-19 vaccination for everyone except those who have valid reasons. The power rests upon the inherent right of the state and the people to self-protection,” Guevarra said.

“But this power, especially if accompanied by penalties or sanctions to enforce obedience or compliance, must be exercised through the legislature,” he added.

Guevarra said that in order to enforce it with sanctions, it should be backed up by legislation.

“There must be a law making anti-COVID vaccination mandatory. In the absence of such a law, the executive branch may only use moral suasion, including the grant of incentives to encourage widespread voluntary vaccination,” he said.

There have been continuous reports that despite the availability of more vaccines, there are still people who refuse to be inoculated.

In his public address last Monday, Duterte threatened to use the police powers of the state to compel people to get vaccinated.

He ordered those working in government who refuse to get vaccinated to leave public service.

Meanwhile, Sen. Nancy Binay reiterated a call of local government units (LGUs) outside the National Capital Region for equitable distribution of vaccines.

Vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. said the country would receive at least 100 million vaccine doses by the end of October. He said the government is expecting to have administered 55 million doses by then.

“If the government is saying that we have already addressed supply problems, our next step should be in downloading this supply to provinces outside NCR, which still have a lot of catching up to do,” Binay said.

Binay described as unfair the approval of the vaccine rollout for the general population including minors starting next month, when many provinces are still having difficulties in vaccinating their A1 to A3 priority groups.

“Those in the province do not feel that the supply of vaccine is sufficient because many have not been vaccinated or are still waiting for their second dose,” Binay said.

She said the government should fast-track the delivery of vaccines to other provinces.

“We are in the last quarter of the year. If we are to gain significant headway in our goal of achieving immunity for the majority of the population, we have to address supply bottlenecks in our provinces, especially the poorer LGUs that have difficulty acquiring and distributing them to their constituents,” she added.

Binay also urged the government to enlist the private sector’s help in the vaccine rollout, after a survey showed that many major Filipino companies want to get involved in the program.

Underreported?The Department of Health (DOH) admitted that breakthrough infections of COVID-19 in the country are currently underreported.

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said they agreed with former health secretary now Rep. Janette Garin that there are COVID-19 cases involving fully vaccinated individuals that are not officially reported.

“We are encouraging our local governments, our vaccination sites to monitor those vaccinated,” Vergeire said.

Breakthrough infections pertain to COVID cases that occur among individuals who contracted the virus after they completed their inoculation.?Vergeire said that breakthrough infections should be reported to the DOH or through its regional offices so these can be included in the investigation of adverse effect following immunization (AEFI).?Hospitals are helping by giving information about breakthrough infections among health care workers, she said.?“But we still need information coming from our communities and this is where our local governments, vaccination centers will play a big role. We are encouraging and requesting all of you, please submit the data,” she added.

More Pfizer vaccines

Another 391,950 doses of US-made Pfizer vaccines arrived last night at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) from the COVAX Facility.

The Bureau of Customs said the country has received almost 70 million doses of various vaccine brands and a majority of these were delivered to the PharmaServe Express cold storage facility in Marikina City.

Some 2.5 million China-made Sinovac doses are also expected to arrive on Friday as part of the five to seven million doses scheduled this week.

Galvez said more vaccine doses, especially Pfizer, are expected to arrive by mid-October.

Around 11 million doses of procured and donated Pfizer vaccines have arrived in the country. –  Cecille Suerte Felipe, Sheila Crisostomo, Jose Rodel Clapano, Rudy Santos