A group skeptical of COVID-19 vaccines has asked the Supreme Court to declare as unconstitutional the government’s “no vaccine, no ride” policy for those taking public transportation while Metro Manila was under alert level 3.
The party-list group Passenger and Riders Organization Inc. (Pasahero) and two taxpayers — Marcelo de la Cruz Jr. and Leonardo Lituania, who said they were unvaccinated — said the Department of Transportation (DOTr) order violated the “constitutional right to travel of ordinary Filipino citizens” who were free to choose whether or not to be inoculated against COVID-19.
“No person should be denied their fundamental rights by reason of their personal choice to not get the COVID-19 vaccine,” the petitioners said.
“Even though one can argue that vaccines are safe and will aid in preventing serious symptoms on the part of the vaccinee, a greater principle involving the right to choose which medicines to take or inject takes precedence over such policy,” they added.
Pasahero, De la Cruz and Lituania urged the high tribunal to nullify the DOTr’s Department Order No. 2022-001 dated Jan. 11, the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases’ (IATF) Resolution No. 148-B series of 2021, and the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority’s Resolution No. 22-01 series of 2022, saying these “allowed the discrimination of unvaccinated individuals.”
The DOTr order banned those without vaccine cards from taking public transport in Metro Manila during alert level 3, to limit the movement of unvaccinated individuals during a surge in COVID-19 cases due to the Omicron variant. (©Philippine Daily Inquirer 2022)
