Galvez ‘in favor’ of mandatory Covid-19 vaccination in PH

MANILA – The Philippines will be completely safe from the threat posed by the coronavirus pandemic if everyone will get vaccinated, National Task Force (NTF) against Covid-19 chief implementer Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. said Thursday.

Galvez, also the vaccine czar, said he is in favor of pushing a mandatory Covid-19 vaccination in the country.

“Yes. I am in favor of that because nakikita natin ‘yung (we see a) higher interest–we are in a pandemic. Kung lahat tayo vaccinated, ‘dun lang tayo magkakaroon ng (If we are all vaccinated, that’s when we can only have) complete safety and protection,” he said in an interview over ABS-CBN News Channel.

Citing a compulsory vaccination drive in other countries such as Israel and United States, Galvez said there is a need to mandate inoculation to be able to keep the country’s population safe against the severe impacts of the dreaded disease.

“In this case, we really need to vaccinate all Filipinos. I see that we need to maybe mandate the vaccination because we’re really at risk. If we will not vaccinate everybody and we’ll have a sizable amount of 20 million [people] roaming around, those anti-vaxxers roaming around, it will then threaten those that are vaccinated,” Galvez said

He then noted that a law should be enacted to ‘constitutionally’ enforce the mandatory Covid-19 vaccination.

San Jose del Monte City Representative Rida Robes earlier filed a House Bill No. 10249, seeking to require Covid-19 vaccination for eligible Filipinos and residents of the Philippines who are eligible to receive the vaccine.

Malacañang also noted that Congress would need to pass a law requiring Filipinos to get fully vaccinated against Covid-19.