The Philippine government is expected to issue an order that would allow officials to go “house-to-house” to record the COVID-19 vaccination status of all residents.
The move comes after President Rodrigo Duterte ordered the arrest of unvaccinated people who violate stay-at-home-orders. Less than half the country’s population is double-vaccinated.
“I am now giving orders to the [village chiefs] to look for those persons who are not vaccinated and just request them or order them, if you may, to stay put,” Duterte said.
The #Philippines' new "no vax, no ride" policy means #unvaccinated commuters can't ride jeepneys, taxis, buses, and more within Metro #Manila starting Monday — unless they can prove they're on urgent errands or unvaccinated for medical reasons https://t.co/7JpPa9DQTa pic.twitter.com/TXA0aPUUEF
— CityNews Vancouver (@CityNewsVAN) January 17, 2022
“And if he refuses and goes out of the house and goes around in the community or maybe everywhere, he can be restrained. If he refuses then the [official] is empowered to arrest the recalcitrant persons.”
Interior Secretary Eduardo Ano is expected to sign the new order, creating a “complete inventory” of the COVID-19 vaccination status of all 42,046 villages across the country.
From 'drug list' to 'unvaccinated list', the Duterte administration loves lists…
— Ted Regencia تِد (@tedregencia) January 14, 2022
Philippines eyes ‘unvaccinated list’ amid Duterte’s arrest threat https://t.co/QskjfyGT7t via @AJEnglish
“Many of the officials will have to go house-to-house and do the survey or inventory,” Ano’s deputy Epimaco Densing told CNN on Friday (Jan. 14).
“Once the individuals, specifically the unvaccinated, will be identified, they will be monitored for the purposes of whether or not they will go out of their residence for procuring essential goods and services,” he said.
Unvaccinated passengers and visitors are barred from entering airports in Cagayan Valley following a spike in COVID-19 cases in the region, an official of the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines said. https://t.co/3klfJo1U7b
— Inquirer (@inquirerdotnet) January 18, 2022
“Under the Revised Penal Code if you do not follow a person in authority or follow a valid order from a higher authority—in this case, the president—they will not be arrested because they’re unvaccinated, but because they did not follow instructions or directives of a person in authority.”