Senate Minority Leader Franklin M. Drilon on Friday, July 30 said there is a need for a law to punish those unvaccinated from going out.
‘’It is also correct that those unvaccinated should stay home. If they go out, the process of escorting them back to their homes is a reasonable exercise of police power to protect public health,’’ he stressed.
‘’Kailangan ito gawin pra masugpo ang pagkalat ng delta variant ng COVID-19 (This is needed to contain the spread of the Delta variant of COVID-19),’’ he added.
‘’In its exercise of police power, the government can impose regulations to promote the general welfare and public interest, including public health. That said, the law must be reasonably necessary to accomplish the government’s purpose and it must not be arbitrary or oppressive,’’ he explained.
Drilon, a former Justice Secretary, emphasized that Congress has to weigh the measure being proposed against those standards because in our case, many people remain unvaccinated not out of their own choice.
‘’Some areas have limited access to vaccines, slow roll or the vaccines available are not what the people prefer. Again, the measure must be reasonable and not oppressive,’’ he added.
Latest information from a government news agency indicated that at least six million Filipinos have been fully vaccinated.
On the issue of a uniform vaccine card, Drilon said it would be difficult for the police to verify the authenticity of vaccine cards.
‘’Wala pong QR code ang vaccine cards. wala rin pong handheld scanner ang mga pulis (Vaccine cards do not have QR codes, and police do not have handheld scanners),’’ he pointed out.
Nevertheless, Drilon suggested that government must come up with a uniform vaccine card with basic security features to prevent forgeries.
In a related development, Drilon said the World Health Organization (WHO) imposes conditions such as target patients should be seniors or comorbidity.
‘’To date we have received about 10 million Covax donations consisting of AZ Pfizer and JNJ. We are receiving three million of Moderna via COVAX soon. So roughly 13 million,’’ he pointed out.
‘’We do not have to talk to WHO to relax COVID-19 donation conditions. There are enough from private and government purchases to supply needed vaccines, if they are delivered on schedule. Procured vaccines between 100-120 million doses combined between government and private sector. Of which we've received about,’’ he added.