The Joint Task Force COVID Shield said on Sunday that anti-loitering and other discipline-based local ordinances are effective tools to further strengthen the government’s campaign to prevent the spread of the coronavirus in areas under the General Community Quarantine (GCQ) and Modified GCQ.
The entire country is either under GCQ or MGCQ, except for Cebu City which is under the Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) and other small areas which are under localized lockdowns due to the rising number of COVID-19 cases,
(PNP / MANILA BULLETIN / FILE PHOTO)
Police Lt. Gen. Guillermo Lorenzo Eleazar, commander of the JTF COVID Shield, said that since more people are allowed to go out and some people tend to be complacent, the strict implementation of the local ordinances similar to what was done in Metro Manila in 2018 and 2019 would be an effective anti-COVID-19 measure.
Eleazar said that such disciplinary measures which were implemented in Metro Manila starting in 2018 have been effective in forcing local residents to behave and eventually resulted in the significant reduction of crime rate in the metropolis.
He was referring to the local ordinances that include prohibition on drinking sessions in the streets, smoking in public places, men walking around the community while shirtless, and minors violating curfew.
“Through intensified police visibility and strategic deployment, coupled with cooperation of barangay enforcers, we were able to impose discipline in Metro Manila which eventually elicited positive results on crime statistics,” said Eleazar who was the Director of the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) when local ordinances were strictly implemented.
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“We believe that we can use this strategy against COVID-19 especially that we have been receiving complaints and observations about some of our kababayan who start to become complacent after some of the quarantine rules were eased,” he added.
The implementation of quarantine rules in ECQ areas is strict with the presence of more policemen and soldiers.
3.6 Million persons accosted
More than 3.6 million people were either warned, fined or arrested in the strict implementation of local ordinances from June 13, 2018 to February 2, 2020. Of the figure, a little over 1.8 million of the violators were accosted in Metro Manila.
It was recalled in 2018, President Duterte raised concerns over harassments on women, bullying and criminal activities especially in the streets of Metro Manila being perpetrated by those who are high on drugs or drunk people having drinking sessions along the roads in the communities.
In response, the Philippine National Police intensified the campaign against loiterers and other violators of local ordinances, the strictest implementation was done in Metro Manila from June 2018 to the 3rd quarter of 2019.
Positive effects
As a result of the aggressive campaign in the National Capital Region, Eleazar said the crime volume in Metro Manila also reduced by a whopping 63% in the first 40 months of the administration of President Rodrigo Roa Duterte –as a result of the combination of the aggressive campaign against illegal drugs and strict implementation of local ordinances.
“This also resulted in the significant decrease in bullying and sexual harassment by neighborhood toughies against workers, especially those who go home in the wee hours of the morning like BPO (Business Processing Outsourcing) workers and other nightshift jobs,” said Eleazar.
Complacency
Since GCQ and MGCQ were implemented, Eleazar said they have been receiving complaints and reports that there are some communities in Metro Manila and other parts of the country where loiterers begin to regroup in the streets. Some people have also started to smoke and vape in public places.
Experts have been warning against continuous rise and even a series of waves of coronavirus infection in the country if people fail to adjust to the basic health safety protocols against COVID-19.
“On the part of the JTF COVID Shield, we believe that these disciplinary measures using existing local ordinances against these kinds of offenses will reinforce the implementation of our quarantine rules,” said Eleazar.
He said that some Local Government Units (LGUs) for instance have passed their own ordinances imposing penalty on people who would be caught not wearing face masks in public places and violating the quarantine protocol on physical distancing.
Earlier, PLt. Gen. Eleazar said that the strict enforcement of quarantine rules that include deployment of policemen and soldiers is part of the government’s medical solution against COVID-19 as it focuses more on prevention of the transmission of the coronavirus.