By Jel Santos
Following the apprehension of more than 100 persons for violating social distancing at a bar in Makati, the Business Permits and Licensing Office (BPLO) of Makati City on Monday (June 29) shut down the Skye Bar in Barangay Bel-Air.
(MANILA BULLETIN)
Personnel of the Makati City BPLO went to Skye Bar to attach the closure order on the door of the bar.
The city government said the bar was shut down for violating Republic Act (RA) 11332 (Mandatory Reporting of Notifiable Diseases and Health Events of Public Health Concern Act) and the Revised Makati Revenue Code City Ordinance No. 2004-A-025.
Mayor Abigail “Abby” Binay said the BPLO conducts routine inspections on business establishments to ensure compliance amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Around 6 p.m. of Sunday, a team of policemen led by Makati Police Investigation Unit chief Major Gideon Ines raided the Skye Bar located at the 18th floor of M1 Tower in Salcedo Village, Makati.
Police said they earlier received a tip that the bar and its customers were violating social distancing while the general community quarantine exists to stop the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
Ines said celebrity host KC Montero who was arrested along with his wife told the Makati police he did not know that bars are not yet allowed to operate, and that he and his wife were just there to eat.
Under General Community Quarantine, bars are still not allowed to operate. They were the first to be closed during the start of the implementation of the community quarantine being classified as inessential establishment.
The Makati City Police on Monday filed charges against Montero, his wife, and 119 others for violating Republic Act 11332 and Article 151 of the Revised Penal Code or the Resistance and Disobedience to a Person in Authority.
The prosecutor, Ines said, personally appeared at the Guadalupe Nuevo Gym to process the cases of the individuals involved.
“The prosecutor had to go here, because there are so many of them. It will take too long if we will transport them one by one to court,” Ines said.
“They were detained at the gym, because there are so many of them. They can’t practice social distancing at our detention cells,” he added.
The more than 100 individuals are still detained at the Guadalupe Nuevo Gym.