BY CHRYSEE G. SAMILLANO
The 13 unvaccinated teachers of Negros Occidental High School in Bacolod City, who were prevented from entering the school premises yesterday morning, are now allowed by the school administration to continue their services through a work from home arrangement.
Ruby Aguilar, one of the teachers, said they tried to report to school yesterday since the alert level status of Bacolod has been de-escalated to Alert Level 1. They have been working from home for over a month although they prefer working face to face.
However, they were not allowed to enter the school premises because they were not vaccinated. The reason why they do not want to be vaccinated is because the COVID-19 vaccine is only an experimental drug and there is no guarantee that they will not be infected by the virus, she said.
Aguilar said they want to stand for their right as provided in the Constitution. If others choose to be vaccinated, that is their choice, the same way that it is also their choice not to receive the vaccine. Even R.A. 11525 states that the vaccination program is not mandatory.
If the vaccine is good for the people why make them sign a waiver?, she asked.
If they refuse to be vaccinated, they are required to undergo RT-PCR test which does not provide accurate result and is so expensive, Aguilar said.
They have been requesting for a dialog with the school administration for quite some time and it was only yesterday that they were allowed to work from home, she added.
NOHS principal Jocette Terora said they were just following the DepEd memo that requires unvaccinated teachers to submit their RT-PCR test results.
They are also protecting over 200 teaching and non-teaching personnel of the school who report to work every day, she said.*
