THE PNP has strengthened its legal offensive against those who will harm or discriminate medical workers, COVID-19 patients, and their families, the head of the Joint Task Force Corona Virus Shield said on Wednesday.
“Let this serve as a warning to those heartless fools that we will not tolerate their misdeeds and we will make sure that they would pay if they dare to hurt or discriminate them,” said Lt. Gen. Guillermo Eleazar, PNP deputy chief for operations.
He said a team from the PNP has conducted “legal research” on charges that could be filed against those who will hurt or bully the medical frontliners and those suffering from the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and their families.
Eleazar noted President Duterte himself has instructed the police force to “protect and assist our health workers on the frontlines amid the reports of attacks and harassment against them.”
There have been two reported cases of attacks on medical workers in Cebu and Sultan Kudarat. The workers were doused with bleach on suspicion they are infected or virus carriers. There were also reports of residents bullying family members of COVID-19 patients and those suspected to have the virus.
Eleazar also said warned those who will humiliate frontliners and COVID-19 patients online, saying the Anti-Cybercrime Law can be used to file charges against them.
For landlords who would try to evict medical frontliners, Eleazar said they can be held liable for grave coercion.
“We urge our medical frontliners and the relatives of the COVID-19 patients to immediately report to us any form of attack, harassment and discrimination against them and we will assure you that we will immediately act on your complaints. Your complaints will be our priority,” said Eleazar.
He said the task force can be reached through hotlines 0998-849-0013 for Smart users and 0917-538-2495 for Globe users. The JTF CoViD Shield can also be reached through its email address: ncovmonitoring@gmail.com.
