ORMOC CITY, Philippines – A construction worker tagged as a person under monitoring (PUM) for the coronavirus disease 2019 or COVID-19 was arrested in a drinking session with friends and neighbors in Barangay Catorse de Agosto, Gandara town in Samar last Friday.
Police Capt. Joselito Tabada, chief of the Gandara Police Station said Orian Geraldo, 40, allegedly defied the government’s advice to undergo a mandatory 14-day home quarantine.
Tabada said Geraldo was tagged a PUM after arriving from Valenzuela City in Metro Manila which was earlier placed under lockdown by President Rodrigo Duterte as a response to the spike of positive COVID-19 cases in the country.
“We received a call from a concerned citizen regarding what this PUM had been doing,” the police chief said.
Charges for violating Republic Act 11332 or the “Mandatory Reporting of Notifiable Diseases and Health Events of Public Health Concern Act” will be filed against Geraldo.
If found guilty, Geraldo will have to pay a fine of not more than P50,000 and/or serve a prison term of not more than six months.