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Belmonte suggests uniform penalties in NCR after 'city-hopping' booster shot incident
By HANA BORDEY,GMA NewsQuezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte on Saturday suggested having uniform penalties that local government units (LGUs) in Metro Manila will impose against individuals who are “city-hopping” to get more than two doses of COVID-19 vaccines.
“Nung kinonsulta ko si Chair Benhur Abalos about this ang sabi nga niya wala pa ngang ordinansa ang mga lungsod. At ang sabi ko, sana may at least pangkalahatang parusa ang lahat ng mga Metro Manila mayors since nagsi-city hopping itong mga perpetrators,” she said in an interview on Dobol B TV.
(When I consulted [Metropolitan Manila Development Authority] Chairman Benhur Abalos about this, he said there’s no ordinance in other LGUs. And I suggested to ask the Metro Manila mayors to craft a general policy that provides penalties against those who are city-hopping.)
Belmonte said Abalos is open to the suggestion.
On Friday, the QC government filed complaints against two individuals who received booster shots in the city despite already being fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
According to the local government, one individual received two doses of the Sinovac vaccine in Mandaluyong City on May 10 then received another dose of the Moderna vaccine in Quezon City this week.
The man used the same name
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Meanwhile, the other individual received two doses of Sinovac at one of the city’s vaccination centers and then received a third dose of the Pfizer vaccine.
The two individuals violated City Ordinance SP3032 s-2021, otherwise known as “An Ordinance Prohibiting COVID-19 Vaccine Fraud.”
Violators will be given a fine of P5,000 and/or imprisonment of not less than one month and a maximum of six months, or both at the discretion of the court.
In the same interview, Belmonte said they found out about these incidents because of the Facebook posts of the perpetrators.
She disclosed that it was Mandaluyong Mayor Menchie Abalos who called her attention regarding the social media posts.
“We filed the charges based on the fact that they posted but we still have to check with the [Vaccine Information Management System] of the DICT dahil siyempre 'pag nagpabakuna ka, i-encode ang pangalan mo at ipapasok sa DICT, doon malalaman kung totoo na double doses,” Belmonte said.
(We filed the charges based on the fact that they posted but we still have to check with the VIMS system of the DICT because we encode the information of the individuals there after they got their vaccines. So we will verify that information with that system.)
Belmonte said the QC LGU will now require those who will get their vaccines to sign a waiver which states that they have not received any COVID-19 vaccine doses yet.
“In the absence of a Metro Manila mandate or any other penalties, at least we have a stop-gap measure and this waiver, if they sign it, there are already laws on falsification of public document then we can invoke these higher laws,” she said. —KG, GMA News