BY ASHZEL HACHERO and VICTOR REYES
JUSTICE Secretary Menardo Guevarra yesterday said President Duterte’s directive to arrest persons who do not properly wear their face masks and shields when in public will take effect immediately, even as the Department of Justice and the Department of Interior and Local Government has yet to come up with new guidelines for the enforcement of the order.
“The President’s directive takes effect immediately even without the guidelines. Existing laws and ordinances have already defined the prohibited acts and impose the corresponding penalties, and the relevant Rules of Court govern the procedure. The best way to avoid being arrested while the guidelines are being formulated is to wear a face mask and obey the law,” Guevarra told reporters Thursday afternoon.
Guevarra said President Duterte has tasked his department and the DILG to come up with the guidelines “for the proper enforcement of his latest directive.”
Guevarra said the guidelines “will not add anything to the substantive aspect” and that it will only be “as to the procedure on arrest and detention until the filing of charges, if warranted.”
Asked as to what law a violator can be arrested, Guevarra said they can be held for violating existing ordinances pertaining to COVID-19 health protocols.
Interior Undersecretary and spokesman Jonathan Malaya said adjustments need to be made on local ordinances related to sanctions that are imposed against individuals who are found violating basic health protocols.
Malaya said the DILG will sit down with the PNP and local government units to thresh out new guidelines on the implementation of the presidential directive.
“I think the President was serious so we will have to sit down with the PNP, hopefully today to determine the parameters of the presidential directive,” Malaya said, adding that they have to reconcile the President’s directive with local government ordinances, which either only calls for warning or the imposition of fines to violators of minimum health standards.
Under local ordinances, Malaya said arrests are made only when there is resistance or disobedience to authorities.
Malaya said authorities need to adjust local ordinances to accommodate the directive, pointing out that “if we do make the arrests, we will also need to prepare our detention cells because there may be a larger number of people detained than before.”
“In light of the President’s pronouncement, we may need to do some recalibration and make the necessary preparations,” he said.
Interior Secretary Eduardo Año reiterated the importance of properly wearing face masks and shields, especially amid the growing number of COVID-19 infections in the country.
He said that while LGUs have passed ordinances penalizing the improper wearing of face masks, these he admitted were not strictly enforced.
Asked when the directive takes effect, Año said violators will first be asked to properly wear their face masks. “If they insist after you asked them to wear their mask and they’ll take no initiative to act, they’re insistent, you really have to arrest them,” he said.
PNP spokesman Brig. Gen. Ronaldo Olay said if violators are arrested and sent to jail, government needs to file a case against them.
Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said local ordinances or the Revised Penal Code can be used as legal basis when violators are arrested and detained.
Roque said that in the absence of an ordinance on the enforcement of health protocols, violators can be detained for a maximum of 12 hours but should be released if no charges are filed against them based on the Revised Penal Code.
He said apart from the arrest, violators are expected to render community service as a punishment.
The President during his Talk to the People address said that he had observed that some people are still not using their face masks properly, noting some would wear it below their nose or even chin. Some people, meanwhile, wear their face shields as headbands.
Duterte had repeatedly called on the public to follow the minimum health protocols to protect themselves from catching the coronavirus.
Senate President Vicente Sotto III backed the President’s order, saying: “I think it’s okay to be detained for nine hours so that people will follow public health protocols. There are things that needed to be met with a strong arm.”
Meanwhile, Tuguegarao City yesterday extended its modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) status up to May 14 as the COVID-19 problem in the city continued to persist.
City mayor Jefferson Soriano said the MECQ, which was supposed to end today, will be extended for another seven days.
Soriano said the city government’s extension recommendation was approved by the regional Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases.
As of Wednesday afternoon, Tuguegarao City has recorded 4,678 COVID-19 cases, of which 982 are active cases, 3,627 have already recovered and 69 died.
Soriano said the city’s health care utilization rate is also high and isolation units are already running low. Additional isolation facilities to accommodate COVID-19 patients are now being put, he added. — With Jocelyn Montemayor
