Las Piñas clerk of court sues OAS-SC over mandatory vax memo

Las Piñas City Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 198 Clerk of Court, Atty. Kathryn Joy Hautea-Nuñez, filed a petition for declaratory relief against the Supreme Court Office of Administrative Services (OAS-SC), the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID), and her immediate superior, Presiding Judge Pia Cristina Bersamin-Embuscado, challenging validity of the OAS-SC Memorandum dated November 23, 2021 requiring the mandatory vaccination of all court personnel and officials.

The OAS-SC Memorandum, which was approved by Chief Justice Alexander G. Guesmundo implements IATF Resolution No. 148-B Series of 2021 dated November 11, 2021 throughout the entire Judiciary.

In response, the Office of the Court Administrator (OCA) Deputy Court Administrator and officer-in-charge Raul P. Villanueva called a meeting with the Philippine Judges Association (PJA) and asked them to inform him of any complaint/petition questioning IATF Resolution No. 148-B filed in the courts, even if the same had already been dismissed.

Justice Villanueva also informed the PJA that the memorandum of Deputy Clerk of Court and Chief Administrative Officer Maria Carina M. Cunanan is not yet applicable to the lower courts as the OCA has not yet issued any circular regarding the IATF Resolution. Thus, there is therefore no policy against vaccinated and unvaccinated court personnel and officials as far as the lower courts are concerned. Justice Villanueva also advised the lower courts to refrain from implementing the IATF Resolution.

The OAS-SC Memorandum provides that court personnel and officials may be exempted from the mandatory vaccination against COVID-19 only if such exemption sought is based on a doctor’s advice against getting the vaccine.  A court personnel or official seeking exemption based on doctor’s advice is required to present a medical certificate, subject to verification of authenticity.

Citing the case of Gerona vs. Secretary of Education, G.R. No. L-13954, August 12, 1959, the OAS-SC Memorandum provides that even adverse religious beliefs will not accord exemption to the mandated vaccination. The only option provided for the court personnel and officials who do not want to get vaccinated is to undergo, as often as may be required, RT-PCR tests at their own expense, or antigen tests when RT-PCR capacity is insufficient or not immediately available.

Once implemented in the lower courts, the IATF Resolution will allow the refusal of entry to other court users who remain to be unvaccinated, or are merely partially vaccinated, despite being eligible for vaccination. The OAS-SC recommended that the measures it enjoined be implemented through the Office of the Administrative Services of the Office of the Court Administrator (OAS-OCA).

Said petition is now pending before the Regional Trial Court of Manila.