Presidential spokesman Harry Roque on Tuesday, June 22, said that there is a "legal basis" for the government to require Filipinos to get their COVID-19 jabs when the safety of the general public is in danger such as during a national health emergency.

This came after President Duterte warned anti-vaxxers in the country that he will get them arrested if they refuse the COVID-19 vaccines. The latest survey showed that 40 percent of Filipinos eligible to get the jabs do not want to get vaccinated.

“So ang sinabi po ni Presidente kahapon, well, kung kinakailangang gawin mandatory ‘yan meron naman talagang ligal na basehan yan pero kinakailangan ng ordinansa o batas (What the President was saying yesterday, well, if we need to make it mandatory, there is really legal basis but we need an ordinance or law),” Roque said during his virtual presser.

Similar with the United States, the Philippines can make vaccination “compulsory” because the country is under a state of public emergency, the Palace official explained.

Congress can draft an ordinance or law that will punish those who will not get the vaccine, Roque said, but there is no pending bill like this for now.

The order will be implemented once there is a law in Congress, although it is not clear if the President has requested Congress to draft such law, which Roque said will take into consideration an individual’s health concern for not getting the vaccine.

“Wala pa naman po. Pero ang sinabi po niya eh kasama po ‘yan sa tinatawag na (There is no draft yet. But what he is saying is what we call the) police power of the state,” the spokesperson added.

READ: Duterte warns arrest of anti-vaxxers to protect people from COVID carriers

Any court will recognize the primacy of protecting the health of the public, especially in a crisis such as a pandemic, Roque said.

He defended that this will not be in violation of human rights, citing the Philippine and US Supreme Court when it said that “the rights of the individual in respect to his liberty may at times under the pressure of great dangers be subjected to such restraint to be enforced by reasonable regulation as the safety of the general public may demand.”

However, Roque said they are “encouraged” by the recent response of the public wherein hundreds of individuals line up in vaccination sites nationwide to get their jabs.

The Palace official admitted that the country doesn’t have a huge supply of COVID-19 vaccines yet, but “we are encouraged na hindi na kinakailangan gamitin ang (that we don’t have to use the) iron fist of the law to compel of vaccination.”

As of June 20, more than 8.4 million total doses have been administered, 6.2 million of which are first doses while 2.1 million are fully vaccinated. The fully vaccinated is equivalent to 1.96 percent of the entire population.

For the Philippines to achieve herd immunity, which is when the majority of the population becomes immune to the virus, it has to inoculate more than 70 million Filipinos. The minimum population protection, which the government hopes to achieve by December this year, should be at 40 to 50 million vaccines administered.