Individuals violating the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) isolation and quarantine regulations may be arrested for failure to comply with the health protocols set by the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases.
This was stressed by Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Eduardo Año Friday, Jan. 14, when pressed for answers on what await stubborn individuals who should be serving their quarantine requirements for being either COVID-positive or in close contact with the persons afflicted with the virus.
He also stressed that negligent and errant local government unit (LGU) officials will not be out of the woods for their poor or unsatisfactory enforcement of the IATF-approved quarantine protocols in their respective jurisdictions.
“COVID-positive persons who are violating isolation/quarantine protocols may be arrested and charged with violation of RA (Republic Act) 11332 and local ordinances. LGU officials particularly barangay officials who fail to implement this may also be charged with RA 11332 and administratively charged with negligence and dereliction of duty,’’ Año explained in a message.
Republic Act (RA) 11332 is the Mandatory Reporting of Notifiable Diseases and Health Events of Public Health Concern Act.
Año’s warning came at the heels of fears that many COVID-19 positive persons and their close contacts may be violating home quarantine regulations much like the case of returning Filipina traveler Gwyneth Chua who allegedly skipped quarantine procedures at Berjaya Hotel in Makati City after returning from the United States, and partied in a Barangay Poblacion bar in the same city which earned her the monicker “Poblacion Girl.’’
Another returning Filipina traveler, Maria Bernalyn Muñoz, allegedly committed the same offense when she went directly to her condo unit in BGC, Taguig City instead of staying at her quarantine room in a Makati City hotel after arriving from US on Dec. 22, 2021.
Año said that the said traveler even got a massage after breaching her hotel quarantine.