Law needed to arrest individuals who refuse to get COVID-19 vaccine —Palace

Arresting individuals who refuse to get a COVID-19 vaccine will only be implemented once a law making such vaccination mandatory is passed, Malacañang said Tuesday.

Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque made the clarification after President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday threatened to have individuals who refuse to get vaccinated against COVID-19 arrested.

“Para mapatupad ‘yan, kinakailangan ng batas [For that to be implemented, a law must be passed],” Roque said during his regular press briefing.

Roque also said that the State has inherent police power to implement policies which could violate human rights in the name of safeguarding public health.

“Pag sinabing police power, meron talagang karapatang nalalabag. Pero nalalabag ito para sa mas malawak na interes, at ito ang public health and safety,” he said.

(When you say police power, some rights are going to be violated but it would be for greater good, in this case public health and safety.)

Aside from threatening arrest, Duterte also said those who do not want to get vaccinated against COVID-19 might as well go to India or would be given ivermectin, an anti-parasitic drug for animals, instead.

Roque said the President’s words should not be taken literally.

“Do not take him literally. He was just saying, go to other jurisdiction because in the Philippines, we want our people to be vaccinated,” Roque said.

As for being treated with anti-parasitic drug instead, Roque argued it is the President’s way of convincing the people to get vaccinated. 

Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra played down Duterte’s warning, saying the President “merely used strong words to drive home the need for us to get vaccinated and reach herd immunity as soon as possible.”  

The Department of Health (DOH), meanwhile, stressed that free, prior, and informed consent is a requirement for COVID-19 vaccination as it claimed that Duterte’s threat was merely “born out of passion.”

“Ang ating bakuna ay [may] free and prior informed consent kaya kailangan magpirma sila ng consent para magbakuna,” Health Undersecretary Myrna Cabotaje explained during the day's Laging Handa briefing. —KBK, GMA News