In a televised address to the people of Philippine, President Rodrigo Duterte threatened citizens resisting the vaccine with an arrest, and also said, "Go to India if you want or somewhere, to America" to the people refusing to take the vaccine.
The country reported 4,353 new cases on June 23 according to the Philippines Department of Health, and has had a total of over 86,000 cases in the past 14 days, making it one of the worst-hit countries in Southeast Asia. It has a population of about 10 crores.
To tackle this emergency, Duterte has ordered each citizen to get vaccinated and said, "Don’t get me wrong. There is a crisis being faced in this country. There is a national emergency. If you don’t want to get vaccinated, I will have you arrested. And I will inject the vaccine in your butt. You are pests. We are already suffering and you’re adding to the burden."
He also asked citizens not to "force his hand" into something like this, and that if he had to, he would resort to these strict measures. "These are the stupid people who don’t like to be vaccinated. And they are really the carriers, you know. They can travel from one place to another and carrying the virus and contaminating other people. You people who don’t like to get vaccinated, I’ll have injected with a vaccine for pigs— this ivermectin. That will really kill (the virus), including you," he said.
Duterte's statement might have been perceived in a harsh way by some Indians, while others have just expressed their displeasure at how India has brought itself in such a situation.
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