By Aaron Recuenco More than 42,000 home quarantine violators have been arrested in the first 11 days of the Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) implementation, prompting the Joint Task Force Corona Virus Shield (JTF CV Shield) to reconsider the government’s earlier decision to be lenient on the violators. Lt. Gen. Guillermo Eleazar
(PNP / MANILA BULLETIN / FILE PHOTO) Lt. Gen. Guillermo Lorenzo Eleazar, commander of the JTF CV Shield and deputy chief for Operations of the Philippine National Police (PNP), said they expect the number of violators to continue to increase if stricter measures will not be implemented and if those who defy the quarantine guideline would not be punished. Based on the PNP data, a total of 42,826 curfew violators were arrested from March 17 to 27 across the country, a total of 12,904 of them were from Metro Manila. It was recalled that while the ECQ is only in Luzon, a number of local government units in the Visayas and Mindanao have already implemented their own lockdowns to protect their constituents from the spread of the Corona Virus Disease. “Just imagine if, shall we say a quarter of these violators are already virus carriers, they will not only endanger the health and the lives of our policemen and other people manning the quarantine control points but also the health workers and other frontliners who are exempted from the quarantine,” said Eleazar. “Based on our assessment, the number of curfew violators will just continue to rise if we become lenient on them. This will definitely defeat the purpose of the declaration of the Enhanced Community Quarantine which President Duterte approved purposely to contain the COVID-19,” he added. On Saturday, the government decided to be lenient to the curfew violators out of compassion and amid the lack of government lawyers who would process the charges that would be leveled against them. But Eleazar said the JTF CV Shield, through the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), received appeals from local officials not to be lenient, explaining the hardships they encounter in convincing their constituents to stay at home. “Our message to the public is clear, we will continue to arrest any person who will violate the curfew,” said Eleazar. E-INQUEST Eleazar said they are aware of the lack of government prosecutors and the need to implement social distancing in a bid to teach curfew violators a lesson. To address this, Eleazar said coordination was made by the DILG Secretary Eduardo Año to Justice Secretary Menardo Gueverra to facilitate the filing of the cases against the curfew violators. “The Department of Justice has activated its online inquest proceedings or its e-inquest for this purpose,” said Eleazar. The e-inquest project of the DOJ is the conduct of a virtual inquest proceedings using any online platform for video calls and conferences and all available electronic communications. “The DOJ has already issued general rules on procedures for the conduct of e-inquest to the government prosecutors across the country,” said Eleazar. But in the absence of internet connections or online facilities in the police stations, he said the regular direct filing will be done by the police investigators. DETENTION RULES Arrest comes with detention and in the case of curfew violators, Eleazar said that PNP Chief Archie Gamboa had already approved his recommendations in dealing with the violators. First, Eleazar said that police commanders were ordered to coordinate with the Local Chief Executives (LCEs) for the identification of the temporary detention center big enough to observe social distancing for arrested curfew violators. Second, the official said that if the curfew violators will be released over a decision that the regular filing of the case will be done after the ECQ, curfew violators must be held for a maximum of 12 hours while being admonished so as to deter them from repeating the offense. Eleazar, however, said that local police commanders were also instructed to coordinate with local government units on proper disposition of arrested curfew violators based on the penalties stipulated in the LGU’s curfew ordinances. Eleazar also stressed that no physical punishment must be imposed on arrested curfew violators.