ManilaTimes-Dec 9

Manila court is set to hear a lawsuit challenging mandatory vaccination against the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19). In a two-page order, Presiding Judge Rosalyn Mislos-Loja of the Regional Trial Court (RTC) of Manila, Branch 41, set the hearing at 3:30 p.m. on Dec. 13,2021. The scheduled hearing last December 7 did not push through due to several motions. The case stemmed from the petition for declaratory relief (with urgent application for the issuance of a temporary restraining order and/or writ of preliminary injunction) filed by lawyer Kathryn Joy Hautea-Nuñez, clerk of court of the RTC Branch 198 in Las Piñas. Among the respondents are the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID), the Supreme Court represented by deputy clerk of court and chief administrative officer Cunanan and Hautea-Nuñez’s immediate superior, Presiding Judge Bersamin-Embuscado. The task force directive mandates that employees who refuse to be immunized cannot be terminated, but they must undergo regular RT-PCR (reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction) testing or antigen tests at their own expense. It also provides that establishments can also refuse entry and deny service to unvaccinated individuals, or those partially vaccinated despite being eligible for vaccination. Read more at: https://www.manilatimes.net/2021/12/09/news/court-summons-parties-in-suit-vs-mandatory-vaccination/1825319