JUSTICE Secretary Menardo Guevarra on Monday appeared optimistic that the arrival of more anti-COVID-19 vaccines could finally include persons deprived of liberty in the government’s inoculation program.

This as Guevarra reiterated that the Department of Justice has been pushing for inclusion of PDLs under the Category 4 in the priority list considering the cramp condition in prisons today.

But according to Guevarra, old PDLs including those with comorbidities are already covered under exisiting priority list for vaccination.

“For sure PDLs who are aging and suffering from co-morbidities are covered by existing priorities. BUCOR and BJMP (Bureau of Corrections and Bureau of Jail Management and Penology) authorities are duty-bound to make proper coordination with local health officers in the places where jails and prisons are located.”

“As for the general population of PDLs, the DOJ has batted for their inclusion in priority 4 if only for the reason that their space limitation makes them more vulnerable to community transmission of the disease. We hope that with the arrival of more vaccines in the coming days, sufficient quantities could be set aside for PDLs at risk, ” Guevarra said.

Guevarra issued the statement after the Commission on Human Rights has underscored the need to inoculate PDLs including prison staff.

CHR spokesperson cited the importance and obligation of the government to treat all PDLs with humans with inherent dignity and rights, including their right to health.

Previously, a support group for families and friends of political prisoners called on the government to include PDLs in the government’s immunization program for COVID-19.

In a letter to Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, KAPATID spokesperson Fides Lim said that “ more than 215,000 PDLs including the 680 political prisoners, should not be denied their right to get a shot of the COVID-19 vaccine as they are clearly not spared from the dangers posed by the contagious and deadly disease.”

“We ask your office to help ensure the rights to life and health of prisoners, including all political prisoners. Please do not fail them this time like how they were failed when our petition seeking the release of medically vulnerable prisoners – the very old, the very sick and pregnant women – took five months with the Supreme Court only to be remanded to the lower courts for even slower action,” Lim said.

She asked why up to now since the coronavirus outbreak, there still “no official pronouncements that consider PDLs as part of the most at-risk populations who need to get the vaccine first.”

“With an unenviable record of having the highest jail congestion rate in the world, Philippine prisons are a death trap. Even before COVID-19, prison agencies report that 1 PDL dies every day or 5,200 a year at the New Bilibid Prison while 300 to 800 PDLs die every year in Bureau of Jail Management and Penology facilities,” Lim said.

AUTHOR PROFILE

Hector Lawas