MANILA, Philippines — A total of 121 people, including television personality KC Montero and his wife, were arrested at a high-end bar in Makati City on Sunday afternoon for violating community quarantine guidelines, including a ban on mass gatherings.
According to a police report, those arrested were “caught in the act [of] drinking liquor [per] table, [and] several of them were violating social distancing.”
At 5:35 p.m. Sunday, the police raided Skye, a posh lounge bar at the roof-deck of M1 Tower on H.V. dela Costa Street in Salcedo Village. Also arrested was one of the bar owners, Felix Maramba, and four of his employees.
Montero told authorities that he was with his wife at the bar to have dinner.
He criticized the police for cramming them into trucks where physical distancing was not observed.
“They arrest us … then they would force us to not social distance? That’s bad,” Montero said, calling the move “backward social distancing.”
Nonessential mass gatherings are still prohibited in Metro Manila, which is under general community quarantine (GCQ).
Bars are also banned from operating under GCQ guidelines, the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases clarified in its amended resolution dated June 25.
However, under its prior resolutions, bars were among the dine-in establishments, along with restaurants and cafés, allowed to operate in areas under GCQ provided operational capacity was limited to 30 percent with the closing time set at 9 p.m.
Establishments in Makati that resumed operations after the enhanced community quarantine was lifted in May were required to submit a notice of reopening to the city’s business permits and licensing office (BPLO).
Based on its Facebook page, Skye reopened its doors on a per reservation basis on June 16.
Following the raid, the city’s BPLO shut down on Monday Skye bar for violating the city’s business regulations and guidelines for GCQ.
On June 19, the Makati BPLO shut down D’Evolution bar in Barangay Poblacion for not securing a business permit and for violating GCQ protocols.