Taytay suspends enforcer for wrongfully accusing biker as ‘quarantine violator’
MANILA, Philippines — An employee of the Taytay Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office (MDRRMO) has been suspended for wrongfully accosting a bicycle rider for staying outside of the house claiming he is not an authorized person outside of residence (APOR).
In the memorandum signed by Taytay Municipal Administrator Joyce Yoingco on behalf of Mayor George Ricardo Gacula II, Administrative Aide I Sonny Enriquez would be suspended for 90 days while an investigation of the incident is ongoing.
Enriquez featured in a viral video where he tried to arrest a biker who was roaming within the vicinity of their subdivision, for allegedly violating quarantine regulations set to avoid COVID-19 transmissions.
According to Enriquez, the biker cannot move out of his house as only APORs are allowed outside their homes — supposedly in adherence with rules set by the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF).
The biker then claimed that he cannot be arrested as he is not on main roads or areas outside their subdivision. When he tried to argue with Enriquez, the latter implied that they instead engage in a fist fight by saying that he would just remove his uniform.
The Taytay Public Information Office (PIO) said that while implementing the rules and regulations set by the IATF is the correct initiative, wrong means would not justify good intentions.
Article continues after this advertisement“Mabuti man ang intensyon na ipatupad ang IATF Guidelines sa ilalim ng GCQ, kitang-kita na mali ang ginawang pamamaraan sa pagpapatupad at pagpapaliwanag sa mga kabataan,” Taytay PIO said in a statement.
Article continues after this advertisement(Even if the intention to enforce IATF guidelines under a GCQ setup is good, it was clear that the manner of enforcing the law and explaining the regulations to the young people were wrong.)
In the same statement, Gacula said that he wants to relieve or fire Enriquez.
“Hindi po natin ito-tolerate ang ganitong pagkakamali. Sa katunayan, nais nating sibakin,” he claimed.
(We would not tolerate these mistakes. Actually, we want to fire him.)
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Taytay is a part of Rizal, which is included in the National Capital Region (NCR) Plus bubble. The NCR bubble is currently under GCQ, which means that people aged 18 to 65 years old would be allowed to leave their places of residence to exercise on a particular time, buy essentials and travel to and from work.
READ: NCR Plus eases to GCQ ‘with heightened restrictions’ from May 15-31
This is not the first time local officers and enforcers figured in a viral video due to wrong interpretations of IATF regulations. Last March 31, a food delivery service was stopped in San Jose del Monte, Bulacan, as a barangay officer said that rice porridge or lugaw cannot be considered an essential good — which goes contrary to IATF protocols.
READ: Lugaw, other food items ‘essential’; delivery must be unhampered — Palace
