By Alec Go
President Rodrigo Duterte mentioned in his Monday (Sept. 27) public address the use of the state’s police power to compel the public to get vaccinated amid repeated appeals to the public to get their shot.
Duterte brought up the matter while encouraging the public anew to get vaccinated once the doses have been made available in their areas.
“’Yung nandiyan na at ayaw ninyo o talagang may pinag-iisipan — you know, I do not want to advance this theory. But under the police power of the state, everybody can be compelled to be vaccinated,” he said.
“If everybody does not comply with the vaccines and we can have a wildfire spread, then the police must go in and intervene in your private life so that you cannot be a danger to society,” he added.
The President also appealed to influential personalities to reconsider their statements by going with the positive narrative on COVID-19 vaccination.
“There is a division of religion and state. Sa ordinaryong mga araw, hindi naman nakikialam ang gobyerno. Ni minsan, government has no power to compel any religion, faith, or church to do a certain thing or not to do a certain thing,” he said.
“Kung ikaw ang carrier, huwag mong sabihin na ang relihiyon mo, o ‘ayaw ng aming paniniwala, o I just don’t believe it.’ Well, I’m sorry. ‘Yung ganoon, it is completely irrelevant to us in government,” he added.
Public, kids vaccination
Duterte said the country’s inoculation program may be expanded to include the general population and even children in October amid increasing vaccine supply.
“We continue to ramp up our vaccination drive and are targeting to administer around a total of 55 million vaccines by October,” he said.
National Task Force (NTF) Against COVID-19 chief implementer and vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. earlier said that the total number of vaccines received by the country may reach 100 million next month.
Based on the government’s data, more than 20.3 million Filipinos or 26% of the country’s eligible population have been fully vaccinated, while more than 23.6 million have already received their first dose as of Sept. 27.
Duterte said 44 million doses have been administered nationwide with Metro Manila, Baguio, Cebu, Iloilo, and Davao surpassing their 50% target population. – bny
