Given the country's health emergency, President Duterte has vowed to defy any court order that will stop the national government's implementation of health regulations in the province of Cebu.

Addressing the nation Monday, June 21, the President warned of a possible “impasse” and “ruckus” since he will not obey any court order derailing the pandemic response.

In asserting the national government’s enforcement of testing and quarantine protocols for incoming travelers, Duterte asserted that he has a duty to protect public health as the country continued to battle the pandemic. He said the matter was about the country’s survival, not about justice.

The latest comments from the President came after two lawyers filed a petition before a Cebu court seeking to stop the implementation of the national government’s arrival protocols including a 10-day quarantine for returning Filipinos to the province. Despite appeals from the President and the pandemic task force, Cebu reportedly continued to implement its swab upon arrival policy for returning international passengers, that contradicted the guidelines implemented by the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Diseases (IATF). A local ordinance was issued to implement such scheme.

“There is always a time that the courts can function normally and maybe grant injunctions and all. But this time, I said, they are put on notice that hindi ako magpipigil. I will not obey the courts in a matter now of management the pandemic. I don’t want anybody from any government agency or department messing up with a situation which I said is being managed because it is very dangerous to the country,” he said during a televised address Monday, June 21.

“I am here to protect the people. And for as long as I’m guided by reason, that’s factual, backed up by studies, then I will follow what the medical science would tell me. That is my answer,” he added.

Duterte said he did not want to “lock horns” with the judiciary, affirming that he respects the courts. But during a national health emergency, he advised the court against releasing any injunction against the government’s protocols on international arrivals in Cebu.

“At this time of a national emergency, I would just like to inform the courts that I will not follow them. I will insist on what is necessary to protect the people. It is not what the legal book says about, well, in the matter of stopping the protocols, the requirements by law,” he said.

“This is not a question of justice and equity, this is a question of survival of the nation. I will not allow any court for that matter, I’m putting notice: Hindi ako susunod (I will not follow),” he said.

He also insisted that a local government’s ordinance could not be “higher” than a national policy.

“Because of the emergency ganito itong batas natin, this is how we do it. So not all cases can really be the subject of an injunction or a TRO for that matter. I’m sorry but hindi lahat na bagay mag —(not in all cases) that the courts will interfere,” he said.