DAVAO CITY—Be vaccinated or be axed. That is how city officials told employees who continue to defy the order of Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio to have all the local government unit’s personnel vaccinated against Covid-19.
According to Lemuel Ortonio, chief of the Human Resource Management Office of the city government, they already advised the non-plantilla, or non-regular, employees not to report for work and “to wait for the signed master list of hired employees of the city government.”
Ortonio said there were 603 employees who continued to refrain from getting vaccinated since the mayor issued in September last year Executive Order 45-A that mandates the hiring of fully vaccinated individuals starting January 1 next year.
He added that out of the 19,000 personnel of the city hall, 18,397 have been vaccinated while 603 have not. The unvaccinated personnel are composed of both plantilla employees and individuals with a “contract of service” and job orders.
Ortonio said many of the unvaccinated non-regular personnel have pleaded to be renewed of their contract. He said the remaining few plantilla employees would be subjected to administrative complaints which have the penalty whether suspension or dismissal.”
He added that unvaccinated personnel have cited health concerns and religious beliefs.
In September last year, Duterte-Carpio issued EO 45-A, also 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.”
The EO ordered the mandatory vaccination of all city government employees on or before November 30, failure of which would be meted with sanctions.
The EO warned plantilla personnel who refuse to undergo vaccination “shall be held administratively for insubordination and shall be penalized with a one month and one-day suspension to six months for the first offense.” A second offense would mean dismissal from the service, which the EO cited Section 50 (d) of the 2017 Rules on Administrative Cases in the Civil Service (2018 RACCS).
The city information office the EO provided exemption from the mandatory Covid-19 vaccination to those who, for medical reasons, have contraindications to available vaccines to the person’s comorbidity.
It said the vaccine cluster of the Davao Covid-19 Task Force would endorse the exemption to the Human Resource Management Office.
Meanwhile, the vaccination cluster of the city reported that 1.16 million Dabawenyos have already taken their two doses of the Covid-19 vaccines as of January 6.
It said 1,237,997 have taken their first dose. A total 2,401,674 vaccines have been administered.
Davao City Covid-19 Task Force Spokesman and physician Michelle Schlosser said, however, there was a slow turn out of booster vaccination with only 49,215 Dabawenyos who availed of the third jab as an added layer of protection against Covid-19 infection.
“Another layer of protection will not hurt, especially that we are anticipating a surge and the arrival of a variant with massive spread because Omicron can have exponential spread,” she said. She added that the city has requested the national task force for more vaccine allocation for booster vaccination for those who opt to have a heterologous booster, or those who sought to have another brand of vaccine apart from their completed doses.
Schlosser has emphasized the need for unvaccinated individuals to get vaccinated as soon as possible citing studies that vaccination could mitigate the progression of the infection to severe and critical cases.