{"id":70324,"date":"2021-06-23T14:28:13","date_gmt":"2021-06-23T18:28:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=70324"},"modified":"2021-06-23T14:29:13","modified_gmt":"2021-06-23T18:29:13","slug":"philippine-president-goes-literally-crazy-with-making-covid-vaccines-mandatory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=70324","title":{"rendered":"Philippine President Goes Literally Crazy with Making Covid Vaccines Mandatory"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>Philippines\u2019 Duterte threatens to jail those who refuse COVID-19 vaccine<\/h1>\n<p><!--more-->By Reuters<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" height=\"348\" width=\"618\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\" src=\"\/\/players.brightcove.net\/4137224153001\/6aIMRO3kiI_default\/index.html?videoId=6260323843001\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>MANILA \u2013 President Rodrigo Duterte threatened to jail people who refuse to be vaccinated against the coronavirus as the Philippines battles one of Asia\u2019s worst outbreaks, with over 1.3 million cases and more than 23,000 deaths.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou choose, vaccine or I will have you jailed,\u201d Duterte said in a televised address on Monday following reports of low turnouts at several vaccination sites in the capital, Manila.<\/p>\n<p>Duterte\u2019s remarks contradict those of his health officials who have said that while people are urged to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, it was voluntary.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDon\u2019t get me wrong, there is a crisis in this country,\u201d Duterte said. \u201cI\u2019m just exasperated by Filipinos not heeding the government.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As of June 20, Philippine authorities had fully vaccinated 2.1 million people, making slow progress towards the government\u2019s target to immunize up to 70 million people this year in a country of 110 million.Duterte, who has been criticized for his tough approach to containing the virus, also stood by his decision not to let schools reopen.<\/p>\n<p>In the same address, he took a swipe at the International Criminal Court, after an ICC prosecutor had sought permission from the court for a full inquiry into the drug war killings in the Philippines.<\/p>\n<p>Duterte, who in March 2018 canceled the Philippines\u2019 membership in the ICC\u2019s founding treaty, repeated he will not cooperate with the probe, describing the ICC as \u201cbulls\u2013t\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhy would I defend or face an accusation before white people. You must be crazy,\u201d said Duterte, who, after winning the presidency in 2016, unleashed an anti-narcotics campaign that has killed thousands.<\/p>\n<p>Human rights groups say authorities have summarily executed drug suspects, but Duterte maintains those who were killed violently were resisting arrest.<\/p>\n<p>Sought for comment, ICC spokesperson Fadi El Abdallah said: \u201cThe Court is an independent judicial institution, and does not comment on political statements.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>___<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2021\/06\/22\/duterte-threatens-to-jail-those-who-refuse-covid-19-vaccine\/\">https:\/\/nypost.com\/2021\/06\/22\/duterte-threatens-to-jail-those-who-refuse-covid-19-vaccine\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Philippines\u2019 Duterte threatens to jail those who refuse COVID-19 vaccine<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-70324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=70324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70324\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=70324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=70324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=70324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}