Davao City Mayor Inday Sara Duterte has ordered the mandatory vaccination of all City Government of Davao employees on or before November 30, 2021, and sanctions, which include dismissal from the service and non-renewal of contracts, await those who refuse to comply.
The mayor signed Executive Order (E.O.) No. 45 Series of 2021, otherwise known as “An Order Mandating The Vaccination Of All City Government of Davao Plantilla, Job Order, Contract of Service, and Volunteers For COVID-19 and Stipulating Sanctions For The Refusal of Such” on Wednesday, September 15. The Order was to take effect immediately.
Out of the 20,000 city government employees, 12,000 have already been vaccinated without any death recorded.
“The unreasonable refusal of some personnel to get vaccinated should not be allowed to bring to naught the cooperation of the majority, their effort to achieve herd immunity and their right to a healthy disease-free environment,” Mayor Duterte said.
She also said that while the local government unit (LGU) recognizes the right to health of government personnel, including the right to refuse vaccination, this should bow to the superior right of the majority consisting of other city government personnel and the public at large.
E.0. 45, according to her, has its precedence on Republic Act 10152, which is an Act providing for Mandatory Basic Immunization Services for Infants and Children, which was enacted in the lawful exercise of the police power of the State.
The new directive was issued in the wake of the COVID-19 surge in Davao City. Of the COVID-19 deaths between August 29 to September 4, it was found out that 42 out of 46 were unvaccinated.
As of September 15, 2021, Davao City logged a total of 9,056 active cases from the cumulative total of 44,863 COVID-19 cases since March 2020.
Mayor Duterte, in her E.O. 45, said, “The increasing cases and challenges to mitigate its spread has been compounded by the presence of COVID-19 variants that have made the virus more transmissible.”
She added that the development of vaccines against COVID-19 is among the solutions that will greatly mitigate the surge of cases in the country with already existing health measures and protocols in place.
Hence, all city government employees are required to be fully vaccinated for COVID-19. The Human Resources Management Office (HRMO) is mandated to ensure and coordinate with the Davao City COVID-19 Task Force Vaccination Cluster in organizing and scheduling the vaccination of all city government personnel.
Department heads and chiefs of offices, through their administrative officers, shall ensure that all personnel assigned in their offices are fully vaccinated on or before November 30, 2021.
City workers who fail to get inoculated during their assigned schedule will have to submit a written explanation to the HRMO.
E.O. 45 also provides that a plantilla personnel who refuses to undergo vaccination shall be held administratively liable or insubordination and shall be penalized with a one-month suspension and one day to six months for the first offense; and dismissal from the service for the second offense, under Section 50 (d) of the 2017 Rules on Administrative Cases in the Civil Service (2018 RACCS).
The City Government of Davao shall only prioritize the hiring of fully-vaccinated job order, contract of service, and volunteers, thus failure to adhere to the order during the set deadline may result in non-renewal of contract.
But city personnel may be exempted from the mandatory COVID-19 vaccination if all available vaccines will be a contraindication to his or her comorbidity. The Vaccine Cluster shall endorse the employee to HRMO for exemption.
The HRMO is tasked to monitor and validate the vaccination of all City Government of Davao employees.
Check out the full provisions of E.O. 45 at https://dcstaging.davaocity.gov.ph/transparency/executive-orders/2021-executive-orders/. CIO
