Judiciary workers join uniformed personnel under vaccine priority list

Employees of the judiciary have been lumped into the same category as uniformed personnel under the government's COVID-19 vaccination priority list, Acting Chief Justice Estela Perlas Bernabe said Monday.

Bernabe said the National Task Force Against COVID-19 (NTF) has approved the judiciary’s request for the inclusion of the judiciary workers in the priority population group A4, which also includes frontline personnel in essential sectors, uniformed personnel, and local officials.

A portion of the vaccine doses that will arrive in the country this month will go to the judiciary, Bernabe said, citing communication from the NTF.

“Indeed, through its adjudicatory functions, the judiciary is an essential institution in the justice sector that works hand-in-hand with the executive branch of government to effectively perform its task of maintaining peace and order and safeguarding public welfare in accordance with the rule of law,” she said in a letter to her co-workers in the judiciary.

“Truly, during this unsettling pandemic, upholding the rule of law assumes greater significance. Thus, access to judicial relief should be constant.”

She said the judiciary’s request also cited the continuing operations of the courts despite the existence of community quarantines.

“The letter-request expresses that the judiciary’s continuing in-court operations despite the existence of community quarantines run the risk of exposing its employees/personnel to COVID-19 infections, who in turn, regularly interact with other stakeholders that already fall in the priority groups of the Philippine National Deployment and Vaccination Plan for COVID-19 Vaccines,” Bernabe said.

The Supreme Court has earmarked P19 million for the purchase of vaccines for the judiciary, which is made up of over 30,000 justices, judges, officials, and employees.

“With the NTF’s favorable action on our request, the details of implementation shall be immediately worked out in order to swiftly roll out the inoculation program soonest,” Bernabe said.—AOL, GMA News