BY JOCELYN MONTEMAYOR and RAYMOND AFRICA
HEALTH Secretary Francisco Duque III on Tuesday night indirectly asked Congress to pass a law mandating vaccination and booster shots for COVID-19 as he said government has done everything it could to convince people to get protection.
He said by now, the country should have administered boosters to about 25 percent of the eligible population, or around 46.4 million individuals. The government was also aiming to fully vaccinate 77 million of the population by the end of March.
As of April 5, there were about 66.341 million fully vaccinated individuals while
12.264 million have received booster shots. Some 143 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered nationwide.
“We would welcome, Mr. President, if the Senate or Congress will, if they can muster that will, political will, to make vaccination and booster a mandatory like in other countries,” Duque said on Tuesday night President Duterte’s regular “Talk to the People.
Several senators took issue with Duque’s statement.
Senate President Vicente Sotto III said passing the buck to Congress is Duque’s “way to pass on his problem to us,” noting the Department of Health’s poor pandemic response since the onslaught of COVID-19 in March 2020.
Sotto, who is running for vice president, said there is no more time for Congress to pass a measure. Congress went on break on February 5 and will be back on May 22. It will have a few days as both houses will convene as the National Board of Canvassers.
“What law are they talking about? What we can pass are the bills pending on second reading that can be passed on third reading. So, I think the DOH only wants media mileage as a face saving move due to its blunders since March 2020 up to the present),” Sotto said in Filipino during a campaign sortie in Argao, Cebu.
Sen. Panfilo Lacson, who is running for president, said it is Duque’s way of passing the burden to lawmakers as making vaccination mandatory is a violation of human rights.
Lacson said Duque should have instructed the DOH to conduct house-to-house vaccination and massive information campaign from the time the government started with its vaccination program in March last year and not only now when vaccines are to expire.
A presidential adviser earlier said about 27 vaccines doses will expire in July.
Lacson said: “Ipapasa pa niya (Duque) sa Congress, parang exercise the political will, there is no political will, it cant be justified. Maski anong political will ang pag-uusapan kung magba-violate ka na ng human rights hindi na tama yun. There’s no such thing. its not applicable,” he said.
Sen. Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III said Duque’s recommendation is “not a valid idea since COVID-19 vaccines are still experimental.”
“Then, it is scientifically unsound to make them mandatory,” Pimentel said.
“…Since the vaccines are about to expire, then all the more it is unethical and immoral to make vaccination mandatory just because of this reason and the fear that the Commission on Audit will make the expiration of millions of doses an audit finding,” he added.
Pimentel said the government should “stop the procurement of these vaccines” due to oversupply.
“Plus considering the issue of whether or not these vaccines, given their original formulation, are still ‘effective’ against the new forms of COVID-19. Let us use what we already have. But let us not panic and try to inject these vaccines into as many arms as possible just because they are about to expire. Let science be our guide, not the expiration date,” he said.
Duque, in an interview yesterday, said the DOH is set to consult the Department of Justice (DOJ) on the legality of making booster shots a requirement for workers and senior citizens.
He said the DOJ’s opinion will be vital for the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) in coming up with a decision.
“The question is whether we can also do that for booster shots,” said Duque, who is also the IATF-EID chair.
He said the said policy would do in the absence of a law making vaccination, including booster shots, mandatory.
“There is a low uptake because we have no law that says getting vaccinated or boosted is mandatory,” said Duque. — With Gerard Naval
