Task force eyes ‘anti-tambay’ vs COVID

The quarantine enforcement arm of the government’s coronavirus task force is looking at tightening enforcement of local ordinances— including bans on loitering, drinking and smoking—to further clamp down on quarantine violators, it said yesterday.

Joint Task Force COVID Shield—composed of the national police, military, coast guard, and fire protection bureau—said it “sees discipline-based and local ordinances such as antiloitering and ban on smoking and drinking session alongside the streets in the communities as an effective tool” to fight the COVID-19.

“On the part of the JTF COVID Shield, we believe that these disciplinary measures using existing local ordinances against these kinds of offenses will reinforce the implementation of our quarantine rules,” said task force chief Lt. General Guillermo Eleazar.

Eleazar’s statement comes after weeks of justifying the deployment of 150 Special ActionForcepolicecommandos equipped with drones and armored vehicles—an initiative he earlier insisted was part and parcel of the administration’s medical solution against the microscopic pathogen and was a necessary move to curb its spread.

But deflecting the blame of lapses in decision making to the public’s supposed lack of discipline in following quarantine rules has long been a pattern of behavior among government officials despite data and surveys showing otherwise.

“We believe that we can use this strategy against COVID-19 especially that we have been receiving complaints and observations about some of our kababayan who start to become complacent after some of the quarantine rules were eased,” Eleazar pressed in his

most recent statement.

Though the crime volume in Metro Manila went down according to the JTF’s figures, reports of abuse against detainees and quarantine violators were plentiful at the onset of the enhanced community quarantine. Some were made to sit in the sun or squeeze into tight cages with other supposed violators, effectively doing away with the very social distancing protocols they allegedly violated.

The alleged breaches of quarantine rules showed shades of President Rodrigo Duterte’s 2018 crackdown on loitering in the streets, when some 8,000 people were arrested just for being in public as part of a supposed “crime prevention program.”

Most of them, however, did not have formal charges.

Eleazar, who was director of the Metro Manila police office then, said that cops only “accosted” suspects rather than actually arresting them. In his statement Sunday, the PNP deputy chief for operations called the 2018 crackdown

“effective in forcing local residents to be disciplined and responsible which eventually resulted in the significant reduction of crime rate in the metropolis.”

“Through the intensified police visibility and strategic deployment, coupled with cooperation of barangay enforcers, we were able to impose discipline metrowide which eventually elicited positive results on crime statistics,” he added.

According to Eleazar, Police Gen. Archie Gamboa, the chief of the PNP, “has already given a go-signal for the strict implementation of the local ordinances through a memorandum.”

At the beginning of the enhanced community quarantine, President Rodrigo Duterte warned the public, particularly students, that anybody caught loitering could be arrested.

“I do not want anybody to interfere in your enjoyment. Ayaw ko na masita kayo ng police at military. It could be messy. Itong mga police at military, they have their orders to enforce,” he said. — Philstar.com