Several social media "influencers" are now in hot water after they were caught in a video partying and drinking alcoholic beverages without social distancing despite threats of COVID-19 inside a bar in Quezon City over the weekend.
Rannie Ludovica, Quezon City's Task Force Disiplina head, said they will consult with their legal department to ask about how to hold accountable those who were caught violating health protocols inside Ciso Bar in San Francisco Del Monte.
"Titingnan po ng legal namin paano mapapanagot ang mga individuals na ito para 'di na ho pamarisan at di mangyari dito sa Quezon City (Our legal department will look into how we would hold these individuals accountable, so people would not follow them and it would not happen in Quezon City again)," Ludovica said in TeleRadyo interview Monday.
Ludovica was reacting to a video showing the supposed "influencers" inside the bar that went viral.
"Nakita po namin yung viral video na ito at nakita namin yung paglalabag. Ang nangyari...meron may birthday, yung magkakakilala naglilipatan po ng kanilang mga tables at the same time maraming naviolate na health protocols dito (We saw the viral video and there were violations of health protocols. What happened was basically someone celebrated a birthday and some of the guests moved from one table to another)," he said.
"Kung on-site namin sila nakita, may pananagutan. Pero iinivite po namin , kukunin po namin yung guest list po ng Cisco Bar (We could have held them liable if we caught them on site. But we will invite them. We will get their names through the bar's guests list)," he added.
The local government has yet to identify those caught in the video flouting health protocols, but Ludovica said some of them were "sad to say, influencers."
"Dapat alam po nila kung ano ho ang mga health protocols natin (They should have known the health protocols)," he said. "At yung isa diyan involved pa nga doon sa flight steward incident eh (One of the violators was even involved in that flight steward incident)."
"Ang nakakalungkot, mga edukadong tao, eh sila na ho yung dapat mag police at alam dapat nila yung sitwasyon (What's saddening was that, they were educated, so they should be the one policing the situation)," he added.
According to Ludovica, the local government will also issue a closure order against Ciso Bar following the incident and invite its owner for investigation.
He said the establishment violated various COVID-19-related measures, such as by allowing its guests to sit close to each other and without plastic barriers and serving alcoholic beverages without food.
"'Yung nakita ko 'yung video, parang normal na. Supposed to be restobar ang operation nila, pero that night, bar totally yung operation nila, which is not allowed dito sa (quarantine) status natin (When I saw the video, it seemed everything was already back to normal. They should operate as a restobar, but that night, it seemed they were operating solely as a bar)," he said.