By Aaron Recuenco The number of violators arrested in the police’s anti-loitering drive in Metro Manila has breached the half-million mark, most of them for violating the smoking ban or for going out of their houses ‘half-naked’. At least 20 loiterers were caught in the streets and violating city ordinances by the Pasay Police. (Jun Ryan Arañas / MANILA BULLETIN FILE PHOTO) Director Guillermo Eleazar, Director of the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO), said a total of 504,644 violators were collared since the intensified implementation of various ordinances on June 13 this year. But Eleazar was quick to emphasize that those arrested were immediately released after paying the corresponding fine, adding that first offenders were just given warnings. In fact, he said only nine out of the more than 500,000 arrested remain under police custody. Based on the PNP data a total of 340,006 have been warned since the operation, which was initially called anti-tambay operation, was launched while almost 100,000 were fined. On the other hand, a total of 67,039 were charged. Eleazar said violators of smoking ban tops the list of those arrested with 140,980, which represent almost 28 percent of the total number of arrested persons. This was followed by those who are caught bare chested in public, violators of the curfew for minors and drinking in public places. Quezon City tops the list in terms of the number of violators arrested with 295,911 or 58.64 percent of the arrested violators in Metro Manila. This was followed by Eastern Police District which covers San Juan, Mandaluyong, Marikina and Pasig.