MANILA, Philippines — Officials of the Department of Information and Communications Technology must explain the DICT’s failure to produce the uniform vaccination certificates it promised to issue this month, Sen. Imee Marcos said.
Marcos stressed the importance of the document, especially for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who were barred from entry in Hong Kong due to the lack of a government-issued standard vaccination certificate.
“The DICT promised to produce these vaccine IDs by August 2021, which is now. I believed in that promise,” she said in an interview with dzBB over the weekend.
Vice President Leni Robredo, for her part, proposed yesterday the issuance of yellow cards for fully vaccinated individuals.
Local government units (LGUs) and the Bureau of Quarantine (BOQ), she said, could work together to have a single database for the issuance of these cards.
Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. earlier confirmed that Hong Kong does not recognize the vaccination cards issued by LGUs and the BOQ “because these do not come from a single source.”
He is considering formally asking Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam about the Special Administrative Region’s decision not to recognize the LGU-issued COVID vaccination cards of OFWs. – Pia Lee-Brago, Elizabeth Marcelo