House panel to rush bill on mandatory Covid jabs

AMID the rising number of Delta variant cases in the country, the House Committee on Health will begin hearing a bill seeking to impose mandatory vaccination against Covid-19.

Cavite Rep. Elpidio Barzaga Jr. said the House Committee on Health, chaired by Quezon Rep. Angelina Tan, will open hearings on his House Bill 9252 either this month or early next month to expedite its passage.

Barzaga said discussions on the measure are urgent as Metro Manila will be placed under a lockdown again from August 6 to 20 to curb the spread of the virus’ highly transmissible Delta variant.

He admitted that the lack of Covid doses now will pose a challenge to the passage of his bill, since it will appear that Congress is pushing for compulsory vaccination when the vaccine supply is insufficient.

“However, once the vaccine supply in the country is sufficient, perhaps that’ll be the time that the law will be effective and provide for mandatory vaccination,” Barzaga said.

House Bill No. 9252 seeks to amend Republic Act No. 11525 or “An Act Establishing the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (Covid-19) Vaccination Program Expediting the Vaccine

Procurement and Administration Process, Providing Funds Therefor, And For Other Purposes” by making it mandatory for persons eligible to get the Covid-19 vaccination, as determined by the Department of Health, to get the jabs.

While admitting that it will be more difficult to have the measure approved now as the election fever starts to set in, Barzaga is hopeful the bill will be enacted before the end of the 18th Congress next year.

“It’s not easy to enact a law unless it has been certified as urgent by the President,” he said.

The senior lawmaker, who chairs the House Committee on Natural Resources, said his bill has to be enacted because the country will need a “drastic” measure to counter vaccine hesitancy which is the stumbling block to the government’s pandemic response efforts.

Under the bill, “no persons who are covered by this Act, as determined by the DOH, shall be allowed to enter, convene or occupy public places, whether or not government or privately owned.”

Persons whose medical conditions, as determined by the DOH or by a licensed medical doctor, make it dangerous for them to be inoculated shall be exempted from the inoculation of Covid-19 vaccine, the bill said.