Local government units must follow the resolution of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases honoring the vaccination cards of fully vaccinated individuals in domestic travels in lieu of a RT-PCR negative test results, Malacanang said on Thursday

In a televised press briefing, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque, however, said the IATF would hold a meeting and the concern regarding the presentation of vaccination cards instead of test results could be discussed.

But Roque, who is also the IATF spokesman said, "It was decided already because you are fully vaccinated, as way of incentivizing and also the science for it is if you are vaccinated, the probability of having a severe (COVID-19) sickness is almost none. So yes, you could still catch it but the probability is also not a 100 percent anymore."

"The PCR test is also being used, if at the time you took it and you're not yet reactive, then you will be negative but you don't know when it will actually surface. So, amid pandemic, there's no such thing as a 100 percent guarantee," he explained.

He said whatever resolutions that the IATF issued and adopted are for and in behalf of President Rodrigo Duterte in the exercise of police power by the executive.

"That's binding on all unless you declare yourself to be an independent republic," Roque said.

But he stressed that the IATF is ready to listen to the concerns of the LGUs.

"But until such time that the IATF decides or changes the guidelines, they should be implemented in the meantime," he added. Celerina Monte/DMS