MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine National Police (PNP) recorded 9,451 violations of health protocols against COVID-19 on the first day of the implementation of Alert Level 2 in Metro Manila on Friday, its chief Gen. Guillermo Eleazar said Saturday.
Eleazar said many individuals went out of their homes on the first day of the more relaxed alert level status in the capital region due to lesser restrictions.
“Kahapon, nakapagtala tayo ng 9,451 na violations. Kung ikukumpara natin ito sa nakaraang 20 days na nasa Alert Level 3 tayo sa Metro Manila from October 16 to November 4, ang average daily noon is 9,746. So we can say na bahagyang bumaba siya,” he said at the Laging Handa public briefing.
(Yesterday, we recorded 9,451 violations. If we compare it in the last 20 days during Alert Level 3 from October 16 to November 4, the average violations per day was at 9,746. So we can say that it slightly went down.)
Eleazar said 10 percent of the violations yesterday are related to curfew, lower than the 24 percent of violations during the said period under Alert Level 3.
Curfew was lifted in Metro Manila starting November 4 but local government units can still impose curfew for minors through their ordinances. Eleazar said the lower number of curfew violations was a result of this new policy.
Nevertheless, Eleazar assured that despite looser restrictions on the movement of people, the implementation of health standards to prevent coronavirus transmission remains.
“Nagluwag sa movements at restrictions ang ating mga kababayan pero hindi tayo nagluluwag [sa law enforcement]. In fact, naghihigpit tayo in so far as implementation nitong health protocols kapag sila ay nasa labas,” he said.
(We allowed looser restrictions but we are not relaxing the implementation of current rules. In fact, we are intensifying our implementation of health protocols for people who go out of their homes.)