People Who Refuse COVID-19 Vaccination Could Be Arrested, Duterte Warns Filipinos

Filipinos who refused to get vaccinated against COVID-19 may face arrest, Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte warned Monday.

During a taped weekly briefing, Duterte said that he would ask the Department of the Interior and Local Government to order barangay officials to list down the names of people who refuse to get vaccinated against the novel coronavirus. He threatened to have these residents, whom he called “pests,” arrested should they refuse a jab.

“They are hard-headed. Don’t get me wrong. There is a crisis being faced in this country. There is a national emergency. If you don’t want to get vaccinated, I will have you arrested. And I will inject the vaccine in your butt. [CURSES]. You are pests. We are already suffering and you’re adding to the burden,” Duterte said during the briefing, according to Inquirer.

“These are the stupid people who don’t like to be vaccinated. And they are really the carriers, you know. They can travel from one place to another and carrying the virus and contaminating other people,” he added.

Duterte also asked Filipinos who refuse to get vaccinated to “leave the Philippines,” and added that he would have them injected with a controversial anti-parasitic drug that some doctors claimed could be used as a treatment against COVID-19.

“You people who don’t like to get vaccinated, I’ll have injected with a vaccine for pigs — this ivermectin. That will really kill [the virus], including you,” the Philippines president said.

Duterte’s warnings came after the Department of Health’s Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeiere on Monday revealed that several Filipinos had breakthrough COVID-19 infections even after being fully vaccinated against the virus.

Vergeiere refused to give the exact number of breakthrough infections reported, adding that the agency is still verifying the cases.

“We need to verify how many days after the first dose, or how many days after the second dose they contracted COVID-19,” she said, as translated by ABS-CBN News.

As of June 21, the Philippines has reported more than 5,200 new infections. The country has now recorded a total of 1,359,015 COVID-19 cases and 23,621 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.