Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra on Thursday said criminal acts are defined by Congress as he insisted that a law is needed to effect the arrest of people who refuse to get vaccinated against COVID-19.
“The Constitution lays down, among others, basic principles and general policies of the state. Specific criminal offenses arising from willful transgressions of this fundamental law are defined, and corresponding penalties imposed, by the legislature,” Guevarra said in a text message.
Guevarra made the statement after Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo argued that Constitutional provisions are enough basis to arrest people who do not want to get COVID-19 vaccine jabs.
Panelo on Wednesday stressed that President Rodrigo Duterte’s threat to send anyone who refuses to get vaccinated to jail has a basis, citing the 1987 Constitution’s provisions on the promotion of general welfare and right to health.
Panelo’s position contradicted the view of Guevarra that there is no law on mandatory vaccination, let alone criminalizing the act of refusing to get the vaccine.
Integrated Bar of the Philippines president Domingo Cayosa said Panelo’s statement only “adds to the confusion of our countrymen.”
“The confusion, the contradictions, the back and forth, makes it more difficult to compel obedience and that’s why it’s very important for anyone in leadership to get their acts together,” Cayosa said, in a television interview.
“Perhaps Secretary Panelo is speaking from a point of view of the power of the state but even the police power must be based on law. You cannot just lift a general provision of the Constitution and make it applicable to a particular case,” he added.
According to the IBP official, Panelo’s job was to advise the President in private.
“I don’t think it is wise after the spokesperson of Malacañang himself has already corrected or clarified that anyone else in the government would still speak about it publicly because essential in leadership and management is unity of command,” Cayosa said.
“There should only be one position on major and important decisions,” he added.
For his part, Senator Francis Pangilinan said fear should not be the national government’s solutions to the pandemic.
“All this administration do is issue threats. If that would be effective, our situation should be better by now. But imposing fear and arrest are not the solution,” he said.
Instead, he said the solution should be science-based interventions, including contact tracing, testing, information dissemination, and effective vaccine rollout.