ILOILO City – Human rights group Panay Alliance Karapatan described the mobility restriction on citizens not vaccinated against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) as unreasonable, repressive and harmful.
“At the very least it is a violation of the right to freedom from discrimination,” said Reylan Vergara, secretary general of Panay Alliance Karapatan.
President Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday night ordered village chiefs to restrict the movements of individuals unvaccinated against COVID-19, citing rising infections in the country.
The order covered all areas of the country regardless of their pandemic alert level status, according to acting presidential spokesperson Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles on Friday.
“It is illegal as it violates the law that he (Duterte) himself signed,” said Vergara, referring to Republic Act 11525 (An Act Establishing the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Vaccination Program Expediting the Vaccine Procurement and Administration Process, Providing Funds Therefor, and for other Purposes).
Duterte signed this law on February 2021. It prohibits the use of vaccine cards as additional requirement in official and other transactions.
The mobility restriction, according to Vergara, has no logic, averring that COVID-19 vaccines could not prevent a contagion and that not only the unvaccinated but also the vaccinated could still be infected.
He was referring to “breakthrough infections” – infections that happen when fully vaccinated persons still get infected with COVID-19.
“It is, therefore, wrong to conclude that the unvaccinated are a threat,” said Vergara.
The movement restriction is discriminatory, he asserted.
“The big question is why is the Duterte regime forcing citizens to be vaccinated?” said Vergara.
In ordering the mobility restriction, the President said he is “called upon to act and because it is a national emergency, it is my position that we can restrain.”
“I have ordered the barangay captains because, under the law, barangay captains can enforce all the laws of the land within their community. That’s the long and short of being the person in authority,” the President said during his pre-recorded “Talk to the People” televised national address on the night of Jan. 6.
But Vergara said it is painful to hear reports of poor citizens losing jobs and livelihood because of discrimination and restrictions against the unvaccinated.
He also noted that since last month after the Inter-Agency Task Force issued Resolution No. 148-B, Series of 2021, many workers were forced to be vaccinated against their will.
Resolution No. 148-B, Series of 2021 stated: “In areas where there are sufficient supplies of COVID-19 vaccines as determined by the National Vaccines Operation Center (NVOC), all establishments and employees in the public and private sectors shall require their eligible employees who are tasked to do on-site work to be vaccinated against COVID-19.”
The resolution added: “Eligible employees who remain to be unvaccinated may not be terminated solely by reason thereof. However, they shall be required to undergo (reverse transcription – polymerase chain reaction) tests regularly at their own expense for purposes of on-site work. Provided that, antigen tests may be resorted to when RT-PCR capacity is insufficient or not immediately available.”
Early this week, a group of unvaccinated teachers of Ajuy (Iloilo) National High School were denied entry in the school campus because they were unvaccinated against COVID-19.
“Instead of forced vaccination, lockdown and other repressive measures, the government should be strengthening its health and medical services and help people improve their natural immunity to overcome this pandemic,” said Vergara./PN