Senator Grace Poe pushed for the expansion of the coverage of vaccine cards to allow more mobility for fully inoculated individuals and make it easier for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) to travel for employment.
“Now that we are once again about to enter a two-week hard lockdown, we need to have a recovery plan for the economy to keep businesses from closing and more people from losing jobs in the pandemic,” Poe said.
“Now that we are once again about to enter a two-week hard lockdown, we need to have a recovery plan for the economy.”
The veteran legislator recently filed Senate Bill No. 2321 to expand the objectives of the vaccine card from being a purely informative record to a recognized document which a fully vaccinated individual can use as a requirement abroad or domestic travel, as may be allowed under the regulations of the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF).
Due to the purely informative nature of the vaccine card as provided for in the law, it remains an insufficient proof of inoculation to allow individuals to travel, especially the OFWs who need to leave the country for employment.
According to Paragraph B of IATF Resolution No. 120, series of 2021, a fully vaccinated individual must have their vaccination card as well as a certificate issued by the Department of Information and Communications Technology or the City Health Officer of the local government unit which administered the last dose necessary for full vaccination.
“Our OFWs have kept our economy afloat in the pandemic, and yet we are making it harder for them to make a living by requiring two different documents.”
“Our OFWs have kept our economy afloat in the pandemic, and yet we are making it harder for them to make a living by requiring two different documents that serve the same purpose,” the seasoned lawmaker stressed.
