Don’t restrict the unvaccinated – Karapatan

Cristina Palabay —AFP FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines — The government should heed calls for free mass testing and strengthening the public health system, among others, to address the dramatic rise in COVID-19 cases in the country, instead of limiting the movement of unvaccinated individuals, human rights group Karapatan said on Saturday.

Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay branded as “punitive” and “antipoor” the new set of policies of the national government, which limit the mobility of unvaccinated people.

Such policies include the “no vaccination, no ride” of the Department of Transportation that is set to begin on Monday, as well as the Department of the Interior and Local Government’s recent directive to barangay chiefs to list down all their unvaccinated constituents

“As we reiterate the role of [the] government in providing free, safe and accessible vaccines, as well as community-based education as part of its pandemic response, policies that restrict unvaccinated individuals from using public transport, receiving aid, going to work, and receiving wages — more so threats to arrest them — are patently discriminatory, dangerous, punitive and antipoor,” Palabay said in a statement.

The “no vaccination, no ride” policy, which will start on Monday will be applied to all public transports by air, sea, land, and rail to, from, and within Metro Manila.