MANLA, Philippines — All those who defy the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) guidelines will now be arrested following the deployment of the Philippine National Police’s elite Special Action Force (SAF) team to parts of Luzon, particularly Metro Manila, where most of the violations have been recorded.
“The order is arrest anyone violating the quarantine. Prepare detention facilities and let them suffer the inconvenience. If allowed, we want them jailed all throughout the quarantine (period) so they could no longer set a bad example to others,” Interior Secretary Eduardo Año said in a TV interview on Tuesday.
In previous weeks, most ECQ violators were simply let off with a warning.
“We are on the last stretch of ECQ and we wanted to really implement because it would be a big help if everybody stayed at home and really followed regulations and guidelines,” he added.
Año pointed out that unless people observe even just the most basic guideline, including wearing face masks and maintaining social distancing, the ECQ could not be lifted.
“Our countrymen really need to internalize that we are at the forefront of this battle. The health workers should be the last defense. The first defense should be ourselves,” he said.
From March 17 to April 20, there were 136,517 ECQ violators nationwide of which 84,589 were from Luzon. Of this figure, 16,660 were arrested and charged.
Año said that he and Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana had agreed to deploy more uniformed personnel, “focusing on areas of convergence in private and public markets, groceries, supermarkets, urban poor communities, and other high-density areas.”
Joint Task Force Coronavirus disease shield commander Police Lt. General Guillermo Eleazar deployed on Tuesday 116 SAF members to 10 areas in Metro Manila, mostly public markets, where ECQ violations were rampant.