With workers exempted, Gatchalian wants ‘no vax, no ride’ policy scrapped

BOARDING PASS A staff of the Inter-Agency Council for Traffic ensures that only passengers who present valid vaccination and identification cards are allowed to board buses at Edsa Bus Carousel station on Main Avenue, Quezon City, as the government implements the “no vaccination, no ride” policy in Metro Manila’s public transportation on Monday. —NIÑO JESUS ORBETA

MANILA, Philippines — Another senator has joined the call to stop the enforcement of the “no vaccination, no ride” policy in Metro Manila after the government exempted workers from it.

“Para hindi na maguluhan at ma-confuse ang mga commuters natin, ihinto na lang ang no vax, no ride policy dahil exempted naman ang lahat ng workers. Lahat naman ng namamasahe ay mga workers naman,” Senator Sherwin Gatchalian said in a tweet Wednesday.

(To spare our commuters from confusion, it’s better to just scrap the no vax, no ride policy since all workers are exempted. All those who are commuting are workers.)

Para hindi na maguluhan at ma-confuse ang mga commuters natin, ihinto na lang ang no vax, no ride policy dahil exempted naman ang lahat ng workers. Lahat naman ng namamasahe ay mga workers naman.

— Sherwin Gatchalian (@stgatchalian) January 19, 2022

On Tuesday, the Department of Transportation (DOTr) and the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) clarified that workers are exempted from the “no vaccination, no ride” policy for public transport in the nation’s capital.

Aside from Gatchalian, Senator Francis Pangilinan earlier called for the policy’s  scrapping, saying it is prone to abuse.

Presidential aspirant Senator Panfilo Lacson, meanwhile, said the government should take a “second hard look” at the policy.

/MUF