Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief Police General Guillermo Eleazar relieved the Quezon City Police District Station 3 station commander due to breach of protocols.
In a statement issued on Thursday (July 29), without naming the commander, PNP Chief Eleazar said he ordered the administrative relief of the QCPD Station 3 Chief after more than 80 personnel who were deployed for the State of the Nation Address (SONA) while they are still waiting for their RT-PCR test results tested positive for COVID-19.
“In view of the apparent breach of protocol when most of these PNP personnel were deployed for SONA duties even if they were still waiting for the result of their RT-PCR results, I have already ordered the administrative relief of the Station Commander, Police Station 3 of the QCPD, for command responsibility.”
The PNP assured that after the results of the 82 QCPD personnel yielded positive, it had immediately conducted testing on all other QCPD staff.
“Right after the RT-PCR results were released and showed that 82 of our QCPD personnel tested positive for coronavirus, we immediately conducted focused testing on all other QCPD personnel in order to identify, isolate and provide necessary medical assistance for all those who may have been infected by the virus.”
Eleazar said the incident should serve as a reminder to all the commanders to “exercise prudence and to strictly abide with our existing protocols amid the serious threat of COVID-19, especially with the rising number of infections from the Delta variant.”
In relation to this, the Department of Health (DOH) said the incident was a breach of guidelines since the personnel without RT-PCR results should not have been deployed.
“We will say that there was this breach because we have guidelines for that, at alam po natin na they should not have been deployed, kung hindi pa natin alam ang resulta kung ang objective natin is deploying them to safeguard the event,” DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said.
The department also urged those who attended the rallies on the day of the SONA to inform their local government units (LGUs) if they have interacted with any police personnel so they can be given advice on what to do next.
Meanwhile, the PNP chief asked the public to avoid creating speculations regarding the issue.
“Hindi pa natin alam kung Delta variant ang tumama sa aming mga kasamahan sa QCPD kaya nakikiusap tayo sa ating mga kababayan na iwasan ang mga espekulasyon tungkol dito.”
Report from Bea Bernardo/PNP-PIO/NGS-rir
