The Philippine National Police (PNP) rounded up more than 149,000 violators within 15 days when Metro Manila was placed under the strictest enhanced community quarantine (ECQ), PNP Chief Police Gen. Guillermo Eleazar said on Saturday (Aug. 21).
Citing statistical data from Joint Task Force Covid Shield, Eleazar said that from Aug. 6 to 20, 149,963 violators were either fined, warned, or subjected to community service for various infractions of quarantine protocols in Metro Manila, including non-authorized persons outside of residence (APOR) violators.
Eleazar said: “In Metro Manila, our Task Force sanctioned 100,946 violators of minimum public health standards or MPHS (e.g. not wearing/improper wearing of face mask and/or face shield, mass gathering, non-observance of social/physical distancing, and [violation] of Republic Act No. 11332 otherwise known as the “Law on Reporting of Communicable Diseases”), while 40,705 violators were accosted in relation to the implementation of uniform curfew hours.
“Moreover, a total of 8,312 were documented claiming to be APOR or ‘essential persons’ but were not able to show proof, hence [they] were denied entry in Metro Manila. [On] average, a total of 9,998 ECQ violators were arrested each day for the past two weeks.”
Eleazar also said that of the 149,963 violators in Metro Manila, 98,971 violators or 66% were warned, 43,328 or 29% were fined, and 7,664 or 5% were subjected to community service.
The PNP chief also disclosed that 437,598 violators (335,871 MPHS violators, 79,910 curfew violators, and 21,817 non-APOR violators) were apprehended in the four adjoining provinces of the NCR Plus Bubble covering Bulacan, Laguna, Cavite, and Rizal, an average of 29,173 violators per day.
“For NCR Plus, 367,765 violators or 84% were warned, 53,398 or 12% were fined, while 16,435 or 5% were required to undergo community service,” Eleazar said.
Eleazar added that the PNP recorded a total of 690,320 violators across the country with a daily average of 46,021 violators.
He also said that 79% or a total of 548,048 violators nationwide were just warned, 13% or 91,683 were fined, while 7% or a total of 50,589 violators underwent community service.
“As Metro Manila moves to less stringent modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) [from] Aug. 21 to 30, let us not relax our guard because the threat of the more transmissible Delta coronavirus variant continuously plagues the country,” Eleazar said.
“Sa lahat ng panahon at oras, makakaasa ang ating mga minamahal na kababayan na ang buong puwersa ng Philippine National Police ay narito upang gampanan ang aming tungkulin. We strongly encourage everyone to remain mindful of minimum public health standards because the PNP will always be on our toes to strictly implement the law against violations, as well as enforcement of rules on mass gathering, social distancing, and travel restriction across lockdown cities and provinces,” he added. (PNP-PIO) – jlo
