Palace hopes Hong Kong won’t single out OFWs in compulsory vaccination plan

By: Krissy Aguilar - 3 years ago

FILE PHOTO: A woman, wearing a face mask following the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, sorts luggage at Hong Kong International Airport in Hong Kong, China October 20, 2020. REUTERS/Lam Yik/File Photo

MANILA, Philippines — While it welcomes a state’s prerogative to require vaccination, Malacañang on Monday expressed hope that Hong Kong would not single out overseas Filipino workers in its plan to make COVID-19 vaccines compulsory for foreign domestic workers.

Hong Kong health officials said they were planning to make COVID-19 vaccines compulsory for some 370,000 domestic helpers, including Filipinos, before their contracts can be renewed.

“Alam niyo po ang equal protection clause is not just a provision in the Philippine Bill of Rights, it is accepted already in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights at sakop po ng kanyang applicability ang Hong Kong,” presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said in an online briefing.

(The equal protection clause is not just a provision in the Philippine Bill of Rights, it is accepted already in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which also covers Hong Kong.)

“So sana po, wag i-single out ang ating Filipino OFWs bagamat we recognize yung sovereign prerogative na irequire ang bakuna,” he added.

(So we wish that Filipino OFWs will not be singled out, though we recognize the sovereign prerogative to require the vaccines.)

Migrant worker groups in Hong Kong criticized plans to make the COVID-19 vaccines compulsory saying it is “discriminatory and unjust.”

Hong Kong authorities announced such plans after two domestic helpers were found infected with the more virulent variant of the new coronavirus.

New coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, which causes respiratory ailment COVID-19 was first detected in China’s Hubei province in late 2019.

KGA