Health and social justice advocacy group, ACT As One Party-list on Saturday, Feb. 5 urged police and local health authorities to go after scammers selling bogus COVID-19 vaccination exemption cards, saying that the illegal scheme is placing public health in extreme danger.
ACT as One second nominee Marcelino Arias decried the scheme “ “unconscionable”, thus, mus get the utmost attention of law enforcement agencieis.
“Selling fake vax exemption cards is unconscionable and is a serious threat to public health and safety,” Arias said.
The group slammed unscrupulous individuals promoting and selling the counterfeit cards.
“They are spreading false information and endangering the health and welfare of Filipinos,” he stressed.
“We urged government to apprehend and immediately prosecute scammers selling fake vaccination exemption cards to prove that such illegal acts will be tolerated. These scammers are not only a menace to society, they also hamper government efforts to convince Filipinos to get vaccinated,” he added.
Earlier, the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) warned against these so-called exemption cards, which promise the holder exemption from stay-at-home orders from physicians and from restrictions in public transport, among other privileges.
“If the vaccine exemption card was not issued by IATF or its member agencies like DOH, consider it fake,” Arias said.
He then urged the national government and LGUs to be vigilant against these scams. There must be clear and strict guidelines against people who commit these illegal acts, he said.
ACT As One, a party-list group advocating public health and social justice, was initially organized as rapid response group composed of concerned citizens that provided aid to hospitals, medical institutions and medical frontliners struggling under heavy stress at the height of the pandemic in 2020.
It provided, among others, PPEs, medical equipment, food and other supplies to hospitals, and even established its own COVID isolation facilities in UP Diliman when the cases surged.