MANILA, Philippines — The National Task Force Against COVID-19 (NTF) has approved the Supreme Court’s request to include about 30,000 employees of the judiciary in the priority list of individuals to be inoculated with the vaccines against COVID-19, Estela Perlas-Bernabe, the acting chief justice, said on Monday.
In a two-page letter, Bernabe informed court workers that the NTF had acceded to their March 31 request and added them to the A4 priority group, which includes front-line workers in “essential” sectors such as uniformed personnel.
She said the vaccination drive for the judiciary would start in the coming weeks as a portion of the vaccine shipment set to arrive this month would be allotted to them.
In seeking the task force’s consent, Bernabe pointed out that the courts and its employees were part of “an essential institution” in helping the executive department to “effectively perform its task of maintaining peace and order and safeguarding public welfare in accordance with the rule of law.”
“(J)ustices, judges and court personnel … are front-line government workers in the justice sector, whose functions are essential at all times, especially during the pandemic,” Bernabe said.
Upholding the rule of law
“Truly, during this unsettling pandemic, upholding the rule of law assumes greater significance. Thus, access to judicial relief should be constant,” she said.
Bernabe said the high tribunal would continue to look for other ways to protect its employees from the coronavirus, which had infected dozens of court workers nationwide.
“(T)he judiciary’s continuing in-court operations despite the existence of community quarantines run the risk of exposing its employees/personnel to COVID-19 infections, who in turn, regularly interact with other stakeholders,” she said.
Brian Keith Hosaka, the spokesperson for the high court, said among those who would be vaccinated were permanent, coterminous and casual employees of various offices under the judicial branch.