Philippine Red Cross (PRC) Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Richard Gordon commented on the additional requirements set by the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-MEID) for incoming fully vaccinated Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) from “low risk” countries.
“The vaccination card should suffice as proof,” Gordon said in a statement issued July 1. “The pandemic situation is hard enough as it is, we should not make it harder for people especially if they are already fully vaccinated,” he added.
Gordon read Guideline Number 3 from Resolution No. 123-C series of 2021, which states that fully vaccinated individuals shall carry the following as proof of their vaccination status:
(i.) Those fully vaccinated in the Philippines must carry their vaccination card which should be verified prior to their departure by a certification issued through the Certificate of Vaccination Record Portal of the Department of Information and Communications Technology or the City Health Officer of the local government unit which administered the full vaccination; or
(ii.) Those fully vaccinated in countries/jurisdictions outside the Philippines must carry their official documentation of full vaccination validated through the Philippine Overseas Labor Offices (POLO), or present their International Certificate of Vaccination, whichever is applicable.
(iii.) The aforementioned documents must be presented to the dedicated Bureau of Quarantine (BOQ) representative for re-verification at the Department of Transportation One-Stop-Shop (OSS) upon arrival in the Philippines.
“Imagine having to go through two more agencies when the government is already burdened with too many records and processes in relation to COVID,” Gordon said.
On June 14, Gordon also sent a letter addressed to the IATF Chief Implementer Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. pushing for an ease of the quarantine protocols for all fully vaccinated overseas Filipinos returning to the country.
This was acknowledged by the task force who issued a shorter seven-day quarantine starting July 1, 2021 for incoming OFWs from countries classified as low risk by the Department of Health (DOH).
The PRC led by Gordon has been working with the IATF since the beginning of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic when the humanitarian organization supported the task force in swab testing.