TACLOBAN CITY –– At least 14 persons under monitoring (PUM) have been arrested in Eastern Visayas since the start of the quarantine checkpoints as a precaution against the spread of COVID-19.
Lt. Colonel Maria Bella Rentuaya, Police Regional Office in Eastern Visayas (PRO-8) spokesperson, said that of the 14 PUMs, 10 were seen loitering outside their homes, while four others were caught drinking with their neighbors.
They were charged with violations of Republic Act 11332, otherwise known as Mandatory Reporting of Notifiable Diseases and Health Events of Public Health Concern Act.
The law carries the penalty of a fine ranging from P20,000 to P50,000, and/or imprisonment of not less than one month to six months.
Some of the PUMs were charged with resisting arrest after they put up a fight with law enforcers, Rentuaya said. She, however, didn’t have the number.
Half of these PUMs were from Northern Samar, where Eastern Visayas’ first confirmed COVID-19 case hailed.
Two each were from Southern Leyte and Samar provinces while one each from the provinces of Leyte, Biliran, and Eastern Samar.
In Negros Occidental, one PUM escaped from a quarantine facility in Murcia town, Negros Occidental last March 19, four hours after he went out of Mambukal Resort in Bacolod City where he was supposed to undergo a 14-day quarantine.
“We will surely file charges against the man once the prosecutor’s office resumes work. We want to educate people that when they are considered PUMs, they must follow the quarantine rules,” said Negros Occidental Provincial Legal Officer Rayfrando Diaz.
According to Diaz, the man left the Mambukal Resort, where they were on quarantine because he did not want to comply with the 14-day quarantine imposed by the local government unit as a precautionary measure against the COVID-19.
If PUMs escaped quarantine procedures, Diaz said they would endanger more people if authorities later find out that they have COVID-19.