President Rodrigo Duterte said on Monday that he would agree with mandatory vaccinations should the policy be recommended by the Inter-Agency Task Force.
Duterte in his taped "Talk to the People" cited the protection of public health behind the move.
"I may agree with the task force if they decide to make it mandatory, it's for public health. Kung ayaw mo wag kang lumabas."
(I may agree with the task force if they decide to make it mandatory. It’s for public health. If you don’t want to, then don’t get out of the house.)
He said those who do not want to get vaccinated would only have two options: "Early demise or live longer?"
"Itong mga tao na ayaw talagang magpabakuna because of whatever — religious — I mean no offense, pero yung ayaw magpabakuna, madali naman yan. Mamili ka, matagal kang mabuhay o gusto mong mamatay?"
(Those who do not want to get vaccinated because of whatever — religious — I mean no offense, but if you don’t want to get vaccinated, then it’s easy. Choose, you live longer or do you want to die?)
The government is already requiring on-site workers across the Philippines to get vaccinated by December 1, with those refusing to pay for their on regular COVID-19 tests.
According to Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Eduardo Año, they intended the policy to force workers to get the jabs.
"Talaga pong dinesign natin yung policy na yan para po mapilitan pong mag-vaccination yung mga laborers," he said. "Kung sasagutin po natin yung kanilang RT-PCR, parang wala rin pong effect yung ating policy. Parang namihasa lang po sila," the secretary said.
(We really designed the policy to force our laborers into vaccinations. If we shoulder their RT-PCR, then our policy will be useless. They will only be accustomed to it.)
However, on a wider scale for the policy — Año said that vaccines will not mandatory just yet for the public.
"Hindi pa naman natin ima-mandatory, but at least we'll make it harder for them to live while there is pandemic because that's the cause of mutation kung hindi maachieve yung herd immunity," he said.
(We will not yet make it mandatory. But at least we’ll make it harder for them to live while there is pandemic because that’s the cause of mutation — if we don’t achieve herd immunity.)
Without naming anyone, Año said there are already several local government units mandating the jabs and the DILG is encouraging them to do it.
He cited the Local Government Code's Section 16, which he said gives powers to local government executives to issue ordinances to protect their constituents.
"That one is legal unless stopped by the court," he said.
The country is currently on high alert amid the detection of the Omicron variant overseas.
