Penalty for refusal to heed self-quarantine order

DearPAO, May I know the legal basis for any possible arrest and penalty of a PU I( person under investigation) 2019(Covid-19),whorefusesto heed or cooperate with an order toself-quarantine?

Amben

Dear Amben,

The answer to your question is found in the provisions of Republic Act (RA) 11332, otherwise known as the “Law on Reporting of Communicable Diseases.” Pertinently, the said law states that mere noncooperation of a person or entity identified as having the notifiable disease is considered as a prohibited act, viz:

“Section 9. Prohibited Acts. -The following shall be prohibited under this Act:

“(a) Unauthorized disclosure of private and confidential information pertaining to a patient’s medical condition or treatment;

“( b) Tampering of records or intentionally providing misinformation;

“(c) Non-operation of the disease surveillance and response systems; “(d) Non-cooperation of persons and entities that should REPORT AND/OR RESPOND TO NOTIfiable diseases or health events of public concern; and

“(e) Non-cooperation of the person or entities identified as having the notifiable disease, or affected by the health event of public concern. (Emphasis supplied)

Considering that the law prohibits mere non-cooperation, it follows that a person’s willful refusal to defy an order for selfquarantine in relation to a notifiable disease, such as Covid-19, would fall under the aforesaid prohibitions. On this note, the law penalizes violation of Section 9 of RA 11332 with fine and/ or imprisonment as follows:

“Section 10. Penalties. - Any person or entity found to have violated Section 9 of this Act

shall be penalized with a fiNE OF not less than Twenty thousand pesos ( P20,000.00) but not more than Fifty thousand pesos (P50,000.00) or imprisonment of not less than one (1) month but not more than six ( 6) months, or both such fine and imprisonment, at the discretion of the proper court.”

We hope that we were able to answer your query.

Editor’snote:DearPAOisadaily columnofthePublicAttorney’s Office.Questionsfor Chief Acostamaybesenttodearpao@ manilatimes.net