MANILA, Philippines — After drawing flak from the public over its plan to monitor social media for quarantine violators, the Philippine National Police task force enforcing public health regulations is just asking concerned citizens to report breaches of safety protocols by posting photos or videos of such incidents on its newly created Facebook account.
In a statement on Friday, Lt. Gen. Guillermo Eleazar, chief of Joint Task Force COVID Shield, said “netizens could [now] directly report blatant violations of the quarantine protocols” through the Facebook account, which was opened in Thursday.
The initiative was intended “to empower the people not only to help the government in the enforcement of quarantine rules but also in protecting themselves and their community from hardheaded people who defy the protocols on observation of minimum health safety standard.”
Lt. Gen. Guillermo Eleazar, chief of Joint Task Force COVID Shield
Total disregard
“We in the JTF COVID Shield believe that most of our netizens have already come across with total disregard of having quarantine violations in their accounts through the uploaded photos and videos of their Facebook friends,” Eleazar said.
“And we share disappointment and anger against those people because it is really unfair that most of our kababayan are strictly abiding by the rules while there are people who even dare to flaunt their defiance by posting them in the social media,” he added.
Tipsters can post images of ”blatant violations” committed in public places, such as drinking binges, large parties and illegal gambling sessions, including cockfights (tupada).
“All they need to do is to send us the photos and videos and we will take care of the rest,” Eleazar said.
For verification
Informants may also tag the task force via “@COVID SHIELD” or send the images through its Messenger account.
Eleazar explained that the photos and videos would only serve as basis for further verification of the alleged violation, with the police acting in coordination with local governments down to the barangay level.
Reiterating an earlier statement, he clarified that “the PNP will not monitor private social media accounts because, first, it is illegal (under the Data Privacy Act), and ,second, our local police stations do not have the capability to do it.”
He also guaranteed the confidentiality of the photo or video senders’ identities or any detail that could compromise their security.