Palace insists law needed to make COVID-19 jab a requirement for employees

Malacañang on Thursday maintained that a law is needed to make vaccination against COVID-19 a requirement for employees.

"Kinakailangan ng batas para ipagbawal ang pagha-hire ng non-vaccinated individuals [We need a law mandating vaccination among job applicants]," presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said.

His statement seems to contradict those of vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. and Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III regarding the vaccination of workers.

According to Galvez, companies prohibiting employment of non-vaccinated individuals could not be called discrimination. 

His position was echoed by Bello, who said employers can use as legal basis for such a requirement the government task force's resolution that only allows businesses with fully vaccinated staff to operate under Alert Level 3.

Pressed if mandating vaccination among employees is feasible given that the government's vaccination program is yet  to meet its target of administering 500,000 vaccine doses a day, Roque said the pace of the vaccination is expected to pick up with improved vaccine supply.

"We are speeding up our vaccination because we don't have a problem with supply anymore. There is an abundance of vaccine supply, and we are pouring in supply in Regions 3, 4A and other provinces," he said.

As of latest count, the Philippines has administered 53,838,248 doses.

From this number, 28,961,359 target individuals have received first doses while 24,876,889 have received complete doses.

Roque said the country is averaging 523,179 daily jabs as of Wednesday.  —KBK, GMA News