An alliance of civic organizations has filed a petition before the Supreme Court last May 12 to declare the government’s directives on “mandatory” vaccination null and void for being unconstitutional, violative of human rights, and violation of international laws and treaties where the Philippines is a signatory.
In the 172-page petition for certiorari, prohibition, mandamus, and issuance of writ of preliminary injunction, the petitioners said segregating the vaccinated and the unvaccinated is shifting the burden of protecting and promoting public health to the people and is an assault on the rights of those who refuse to be vaccinated.
They said anti-Covid-19 vaccines granted emergency use authorization by the Food and Drug Administration have injured “tens of thousands of people in the country and around the world”.
Among the studies they cited were the reports of the Centers for Disease Control and the medical journal, The Lancet, U.S. FDA, and the Department of Health which showed some people who got vaccinated suffered adverse side effects and the vaccines aggravated those with cardiac, blood and lymphatic system, and nervous system disorders.
Efficacy of the vaccines are also waning and do not prevent infection and transmission.
“In its efforts to suppress the pandemic, the government’s response has unleashed a much more virulent social malady that is slowly but painfully destroying the very core of Philippine society, causing men to turn against their fathers, daughters against their mothers, daughters-in-law against their mothers-in-law, isolating young people from their friends, and depriving children of the joys of childhood, by proclaiming judgment on the unvaccinated as the new “unclean”, a portion of the petition states.
The petitioners are composed of doctors who are against mandatory vaccination, those who sustained adverse effects allegedly due to the vaccine, researchers, teachers and other employees who said were deprived the right of movement because establishments and public transportation only accept those who are vaccinated.
Respondents to the petition are members of the Inter-Agency Task Force on the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases, Health Sec. Francisco Duque, Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea, Education Sec. Leonor Briones, Interior and Local Government Sec. Eduardo Año, Transportation Sec. Art Ugade, and the local government of Makati represented by Mayor Abie Binay for passing an ordinance restricting the movement of unvaccinated individuals in the city. – Rimaliza A. Opiña
