JUSTICE Secretary Menardo Guevarra yesterday welcomed the inclusion of public prosecutors in the priority list for COVID-19 vaccination.
“The inclusion of the prosecutors in the vaccine priority list was initiated through a letter of the regional prosecutors to the IATF (Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases). When the matter was reported during the IATF meeting, the DOJ vigorously supported the request for inclusion of the prosecutors, and the same was thereupon approved, ” Guevarra said.
Guevarra added that prosecutors nationwide would benefit from the inclusion in the priority list for vaccination, which was approved some two weeks back.
On Monday, Guevarra confirmed that public prosecutors, public attorneys, and “similar individuals directly involved in the dispensation of justice” are now in the priority list to receive COVID-19 vaccine under Category A4.
“I know for a fact that judges, prosecutors, public attorneys, and similar individuals directly involved in the dispensation of justice have been included by the IATF in priority A4 of the National Vaccination Program, ” Guevarra said.
The Integrated Bar of the Philippines has recently asked the National Task Force Against COVID-19 to include lawyers in the priority list to receive COVID-19 vaccine under Category A4.
In a letter to NTFCOVID-19 chief implementer Carlito Galvez, the IBP said “lawyers are legal frontliners that should be similarly protected” from the coronavirus.
Meanwhile, the NTFCOVID-19 granted the request of the judiciary to include justices, judges and court personnel in the priority list for COVID-19 vaccination program as Category A4.
“I am pleased to inform you that our request for inclusion in priority population group A4 (category A4) of the Philippine National Deployment and Vaccination Plan for COVID-19 Vaccines has been granted by the National Task Force Against COVID-19 (NTF),” senior Supreme Court Associate Justice Estela Perlas-Bernabe said.
According to SC spokesperson Brian Keith Hosaka, the vaccination would benefit roughly 30,000 court workers.
Category A4 are frontline personnel in essential sectors both in public and private sectors, including uniformed personnel, and those in working sectors identified by the IATF (Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases) that are directly client facing and cannot dutifully meet minimum public health standards.
