MANILA (UPDATE) — The Supreme Court has junked 3 petitions that sought to question various regulations issued by the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases, local government units and other agencies in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a press briefer, the high court’s Public Information Office said the magistrates, during its session on Tuesday, July 11, voted to dismiss separate petitions all filed in February and May 2022 by former presidential candidate Dr. Jose Montemayor, Jr., a group of passengers’ and riders’ advocates, and civic groups.

"The Court held that petitions were dismissible for violating the doctrine of hierarchy of courts as the resolution of the issues raised therein required the determination and adjudication of extremely technical and scientific facts that necessitates the conduct of a full-blown proceeding before a court of first instance," it said.

The court of first instance refers to the regional trial courts, which are in a position to receive evidence.

The Supreme Court, on the other hand, is not a "trier of facts," which means only issues on the interpretation of a law or its constitutionality are brought before it.

The COVID-19 policies questioned by the petitions included a policy that required all public and private establishments to order their employees doing on-site work to either get vaccinated against the coronavirus or be subjected to an RT-PCR test every 2 weeks, shouldering their own costs.

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According to petitioners, the various policies violated their right to due process, impaired their right to travel and infringed upon the equal protection clause because they apply only to those who do not have private vehicles and discriminated against the unvaccinated.

"They averred that the impugned measures embody a mandatory vaccination policy considering that the use of public transportation is an essential part of Filipino life," the briefer said.

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The briefer did not say if the Supreme Court, in its resolution, still addressed the constitutional issues raised by the petitioners. Under a long-standing doctrine, the high court will not resolve constitutional issues if petitions have already been dismissed on other grounds.

The SC has yet to release a copy of the resolution.

'ENACTED WITH UTMOST CONSIDERATION'

In an interview with the media, Department of Health spokesperson Dr. Eric Tayag said they welcomed the ruling but expressed concern that new petitions would be filed.

“Kaya lang kung babasahin niyo yun meron pang pagkakataon lumalabas na yung mga nagrereklamo na dahiln ang reklamo sa korte at hindi sa mataas na kapulungan. So yan ay inaasahan namin na baka yan ay gagawin po ng mga nagreklamo,” he said.

(But if you read the briefer, it seems there’s still a chance that they will bring the complaint to a court, not the Supreme Court. So that’s what we’re expecting that petitioners will do.)

“Pero sana maintindhan na lahat ng ginagawa namin ay may basehan po kami. At yan ang pinanigan ng korte,” he added.

(But I hope they understand that everything we do has basis and the court sided with us.)

In a statement issued Friday, the health agency stressed that all COVID-19-related regulations and policies were "enacted with the utmost consideration for the common good".

The DOH noted the importance of vaccination and booster doses " as they remain our foremost line of defense against the COVID-19 virus".

"Scientific evidence unequivocally demonstrates that vaccines, coupled with the meticulous implementation of multiple layers of protection, have played an instrumental role in guiding our successful journey towards overcoming the challenges posed by the pandemic," it said.

The SC ruling came 2 months after the World Health Organization declared the end of COVID-19 as a global public health emergency.

In the Philippines, Health Secretary Ted Herbosa said he would recommend the lifting of the country’s state of public health emergency although he said the President noted that the public health emergency had been “de facto” lifted even without a formal order.

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