DILG PR
The Department of the Interior and Local Government considers the alleged “shoot to kill” threat by the head of the QC Task Force Disiplina against quarantine violators in Quezon City as improper and illegal and we advise him to desist from issuing similar statements in the future.
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. The penalties to be imposed by local government units against quarantine violators must be within the bounds of their respective ordinances.
We wish to assure the public that the QC Government led by Mayor Joy Belmonte has disowned the alleged FB post of Ludovica, 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. Nonetheless, LGU department heads must be circumspect in their social media posts since this may be mistaken by their constituents as official LGU policy.
In imposing discipline, we must also act in a disciplined manner at all times.
