Dispatch from Crame No. 1,081:
Sen. Leila M. de Lima's response to Malacañang's statement on the arrest of people who refuse to be vaccinated

6/24/21

Of course, there has to be a law before they could arrest people who refuse to be vaccinated. That's how democracy works!

Matapos ang drama nila sa Dengvaxia dati, ngayon hindi lang basta pipilitin ang mga taong pabakunahan, gusto pa nilang ipakulong ang mga tumatanggi.

Every freshman law student knows the doctrine Nullum crimen sine lege. There is no crime if there is no law punishing it. It is even included in general principles of criminal law in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Duterte should familiarize himself with it because he will be dealing with it in the very near future.

Duterte cannot just order his underlings to arrest anyone without legal basis. That would be plain injustice. And that would make him and the police who followed his unjust orders liable for Unlawful Arrest under Art. 269 of the Revised Penal Code.

Before he brags about being a lawyer, he should first know the law. Last we checked it is still Rule of Law here in the Philippines, not Rule of Duterte.

But perhaps the discussion should not be whether we could enact a law to punish those who refuse to be vaccinated, but whether we should.

VP Leni is encouraging a lot of people to be inoculated without threatening arrest. Duterte should follow her lead. ###

Access the handwritten version, here: https://issuu.com/senatorleilam.delima/docs/dispatch_1081