DILG twits ‘shoot-to-kill’ official

In light of the alleged “shoot-to-kill” statement of Quezon City Task Force Disiplina head Rannie Ludovica on social media for those who will violate quarantine protocols in Quezon City, the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) tagged the statement as “improper and illegal.”

In a statement, DILG spokesman Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya stressed the said official should desist from issuing similar statements in the future as it puts local government efforts in a bad light.

“While we strongly believe that discipline is one of the preventive measures to stop the transmission of the coronavirus, this must be enforced within the bounds of the law, and the DILG will not tolerate any possible abuse of authority on the part of law enforcement agencies or enforcement units of local government units,” Malaya said.

“The penalties to be imposed by local government units against quarantine violators must be within the bounds of their respective ordinances,” he added.

The DILG spokesman added the QC local government has disowned Ludovica’s alleged FB post, “saying that it should not be taken literally, if true, and that it was merely an expression of frustration over the growing number of violations in Quezon City.”

Ludovica, on the other hand, clarified that the local government of Quezon City has no shoot-to-kill policy against quarantine violators and stressed that the post was personal.

He also explained it was borne out of his frustration on the continuing rise of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases in the country because of the public’s “lack of discipline.”

Ludovica also stressed the public should strictly follow health and safety protocols to combat the pandemic.

Earlier reports said Ludovica had supposedly threatened quarantine violators with a shootto-kill policy.

Malaya, meantime, stressed that LGU department heads must be circumspect in their social media posts since this may be mistaken by their constituents as official LGU policy.