Deputy Majority Leader and Quezon City Rep. Precious Hipolito Castelo proposed Saturday that vaccine line jumping and mishandling be criminalized, stressing she would file a bill to this effect on Monday.
She said the bill would amend Republic Act 11525 or the COVID-19 Vaccination Program Act of 2021, which President Rodrigo Duterte signed last Feb. 6.
“Vaccine queue jumping and mishandling, which results in wastage, should be considered criminal offenses and penalties should be imposed on offenders. There should be accountability,” she said.
Castelo pointed out that both acts of wrongdoing “deny healthcare workers and senior citizens, who are on top of the vaccine priority list, their COVID-19 shots, and consequently, their protection from the virus.”
She added: “Mishandling also affects our timetable to back to normalcy and to hasten economic recovery. It is preventable and therefore cannot be made an alibi for incompetence or even stupidity.” She said both vaccine line skipping and wastage could jeopardize the country’s allocation of free 44 million doses from the World Health Organization vaccine sharing facility.
“Even if we buy from producers to replace wasted jabs, it would take time before they can supply us because their production for the immediate future has already been contracted and cornered by rich countries,” she said.
Earlier, Castelo called for swift punishment for local officials and private individuals who have jumped the vaccine priority list, dislodging healthcare workers, who get the top priority, followed by senior citizens.
As it turned out, according to Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra, the jumpers could not be held criminally liable because RA No. 11525 did not have penal provisions, except for those who falsified vaccination cards.
But Guevarra said jumper-officials could be penalized administratively.
As for vaccine mishandling, some 7,500 doses of AstraZeneca were returned to the Department of Health (DOH) in Manila after the DOH-Bicol regional office discovered that they were contained in a box with a defective temperature reader and their efficacy might have been compromised.
The DOH is having the doses evaluated if they could still be used.
On Friday, Guevarra said the government might file administrative cases against public officials who jump the line to get inoculated against COVID-19.
“Possible administrative liability [may be filed] if they are government officials who are not in the priority list,” Guevarra said in a text message.
While the new vaccination law does not provide penal provisions against erring government officials who jump ahead of the line in getting jabs, they may be held liable for violating the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees (Republic Act 6713).
Duterte earlier warned government officials against getting themselves vaccinated for COVID-19 even though they were not in the priority list, which puts health care workers ahead of all other groups.
The warning came after the Department of Interior and Local Government issued a show-cause order against five local chief executives for skipping the line and getting vaccinated against COVID-19.
The President reminded the public that the vaccines were donated by the COVAX Facility of the World Health Organization and, because of this, the Philippines has an obligation to follow the list of priorities, which is a condition for receiving the donated vaccines.
The DILG said seven more mayors would receive show cause orders for getting inoculated ahead of health care workers.
Interviewed on CNN Philippines, DILG Undersecretary Epimaco Densing III said these local government officials have to explain and justify their vaccination.
“If the approval of our OIC comes out today, we have another eight to release—seven mayors and one councilor,” Densing said.
The show cause orders are expected to be issued on Friday, he added.
Densing III said show cause orders were issued to the following mayors as of Tuesday: Mayor Alfred Romualdez of Tacloban City, Leyte; Mayor Dibu Tuan of T’boli, South Cotabato; Mayor Sulpicio Villalobos of Sto. Nino, South Cotabato; Mayor Noel Rosal of Legazpi City, Albay; and Mayor Abraham Ibba of Bataraza, Palawan.
The President also named four mayors: Elanito Peña of Minglanilla, Cebu; Victoriano Torres III, of Alicia, Bohol; Virgilio Mendez of San Miguel, Bohol; and Arturo Piollo II of Lila, Bohol.
Quezon City Rep. Precious Hipolito-Castelo on Friday called for swift punishment for those who have jumped the prioritization list for Covid-19 vaccine.
“Show cause orders and citations of law or rules are not enough. We should have instant sanctions for vaccine queue jumpers and those with command responsibility for violations to set the example for all concerned and the general public,” Castelo said.
She said it is only by imposing penalties swiftly on violators and responsible officials could the government send the message that it is dead serious about enforcing pandemic response measures impartially.
“As it is, there is the perception that only the small fry like localized lockdown breakers are caught and penalized instantly, while [the guilty] in high places get away with infractions,” Castelo said.
She added that she could not believe the claim of vaccine line jumpers that they got themselves vaccinated as “substitutes” for health care workers who were absent or who refused the jabs.
“There are many doctors, nurses, other medical practitioners, and hospital personnel who are willing to take the vaccine to protect themselves from the virus and continue attending to patients,” she said.
She pointed out that as of now, fewer than 500,000 of the estimated 1.7 million health care workers in the country have been inoculated since the vaccine rollout on March 1.
Eastern Samar Gov. Ben Evardone appealed his fellow local government officials to strictly follow the priory listings for the vaccine rollout.
“We should set the example in ensuring proper and orderly vaccination rollout. Let’s avoid jumping the line. Let’s protect first the health workers and frontliners. anyway, the national government has assured the general public that all the targeted 70 million Filipinos will be vaccinated once the supply is available,” Evardone, former congressman, said in a message to reporters covering the House of Representatives.
Tacloban’s mayor said he was ready to face any investigation.
“If I have violated any guidelines, I am willing to face the consequences,” said Romualdez who was inoculated with Chinese-made Sinovac on March 22, 2021.
“It pains me to hear that only 50 percent of the frontliners wanted to avail of the Covid-19 jab and the remaining vials will be returned to the national government. So I did it to lead my people out of fear,” he said.
But Senator Sherwin Gatchalian said it was unfair for health workers and other front liners that government officials and entertainment personalities jumped ahead of the line to get the vaccines and save themselves.
“I don’t buy the reason – they did it for the people or to build confidence on the vaccines– because the people will not have access to vaccines till July! The only qualified people as of this point are medical frontliners,” Gatchalian said.
Senator Franklin Drilon said the credibility of the government to make the Filipinos follow the rules is hurt by past incidents, including the reported illegal and unauthorized vaccination of government officials.
“I leave it to the Department of Justice to determine possible violations when the prioritization provided for in COVID-19 Vaccination Program Act is not followed,” he said.
“This happens when we only have a million or so doses when what we need is at least 140 million doses to inoculate around 70 million Filipinos,” he added.
Senate President Vicente Sotto III said the local executives are under the jurisdiction of the Department of the Interior and Local Government, “therefore, they should answer to the department.”
Only Senator Francis Tolentino spoke up in defense of the mayors who took their jabs before medical workers.
Also on Friday, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said he would recommend to the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) the inclusion of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in the government’s COVID-19 vaccination priority list.
“I will ask the Inter-Agency Task Force to raise their status in the prioritization framework,” Duque told lawmakers at a congressional hearing conducted by the House of Representatives committee on overseas workers affairs.
At present, OFWs are classified as B5 in the prioritization list.
Duque’s proposal to the IATF is to have OFWs classified as A4 or “frontline personnel in essential sectors including uniformed personnel and those in working sectors identified by the IATF as essential during enhanced community quarantine.”
Duque also said he would propose that OFWs who are health workers be classified as A1, OFWs who are senior citizens may be classified as A2, and the OFWs who have co-morbidities may be classified as A3.
“The rest, we will include as A4. That is what we have agreed on and I will relay this in the next IATF meeting,” Duque said.