Hotels that serve as quarantine facilities for individuals who recently returned from abroad aren't completely absolved from legal action despite President Duterte's statements, Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles clarified on Wednesday, Jan. 5.
Nograles, the acting presidential spokesperson, said that such hotels can still get in trouble if they fail to report incidents of quarantine jumping, like what happened with the Gwyneth Chua case.
"Duty-bound pa rin yung officials of that hotel or quarantine facility (Officials of that hotel or quarantine facility are still duty-bound) to at the very least report any violations of those who are supposed to be under quarantine. And if there is negligence the part or hindi ginawa (it wasn't reported), the omission of the hotel employees and its officers in not reporting--remember, the keyword here is yung pagre-report (the reporting)," he said in a virtual press conference.
Nograles said this obligation is provided for under Republic Act (RA) No. 11332, or the Mandatory Reporting of Notifiable Diseases and Health Events of Public Health Concern Act.
He further confirmed that Berjaya Hotel, the Makati City Hotel that was supposed to hold Chua for quarantine, had already been slapped with charges.
"In this case (Chua), as filed by the CIDG (Criminal Investigation and Detection Group) and complainants, wala talagang pagre-report na ginawa (there was no reporting done). So those are omissions which unfortunately fall under the elements found in the provisions of the law na ipinagbabawal (that are prohibited acts)," he explained.
In his "Talk to the People" public briefing Tuesday night, Duterte opined that quarantine hotels cannot be asked legally by the state to physically stop persons under quarantine to skip their required quarantine.
"You are delegating a governmental procedure imposed by government. It would not be legally correct to go after the hotel owners or managers there or whoever is attending to the needs of the people that are inside the hotel because of quarantine reasons," Duterte said.
As such, Duterte tasked the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) to designate two police officers for every quarantine hotel in the country. He said it would be the cops' duty to arrest individuals who insist on jumping their quarantine--something that hotel personnel and owners may not have the legal authority to do.
Nograles justified the Chief Executive's move.
"You have to go back to the conversation between the Secretary of Justice and the President in the Talk to the People and that was very transparent. And in that conversation, the President agreed and then in-emphasize niya lang iyong limitation noong physical enforcement lalo na kapag naging aggressive na iyong magba-violate ng quarantine (he emphasized the limitation on physical enforcement especially if the would-be quarantine violator becomes aggressive)," he said.
"So that is why you need a law enforcer there in order to prevent such aggression or such violations because of the limitations nga of these employees of the hotel. It does not remove or absolve them of their negligence – the omissions of their act, the non-reporting – and in any case, the cases will be filed, the cases will be prosecuted and then it will be up to the judge to decide," he added.