Beach party hosted by Cebu execs probed

Screengrab from video

CEBU CITY—The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) and the local police are looking into a beach party hosted last month by Cebu politicians over supposed violation of health protocols amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The event, which was reportedly organized by Cebu Rep. Duke Frasco, Board Member Andrei “Red” Duterte and former provincial board candidate Mike Villamor, gathered hundreds of participants from different areas in Central Visayas, according to the police.

The DILG received information from an “anonymous complainant.” The complaint, dated Aug. 13, was sent to the DILG’s provincial office in Cebu. It said the beach party followed the “Team Frasco Friendship Run/Ride” held on July 10 in San Francisco, Camotes Islands.

Police Brig. Gen. Ronnie Montejo, director of the Central Visayas police, ordered Police Col. Engelbert Soriano, Cebu police director, to investigate not only the organizers but all those present in the party.

“I won’t have second thoughts of penalizing those who attended the party if our investigators could prove that they violated the health protocols,” he said on Thursday.

No masks, distancing

Interior Secretary Eduardo Año and Philippine National Police chief Gen. Guillermo Eleazar on Wednesday ordered police officials in Cebu to look into the incident.Video clips from the party, which made rounds on social media, showed people not wearing face masks and not observing physical distancing.

Frasco had yet to issue a statement on the incident. But his mother-in-law, Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia, questioned the motive of the anonymous complainant.

According to Garcia, the event happened on July 10 when the province was under the least restrictive modified general community quarantine.

She described the footage circulated through social media recently as “malicious,” noting that it was intended to present a totally different impression since most of Cebu province had been placed under the stricter general community quarantine (GCQ) with heightened restrictions.

“The fact that this video surfaced only now from an anonymous sender, does raise the question, first of all, that it is obviously malicious, and when it becomes malicious, there is obviously a motive. And what other motive can we think of except that the elections are drawing near?” Garcia said on Wednesday.

“For some people, everything seems to be about politics. Not for me, not for our group. They better try harder because I don’t think the secretary of [DILG] would appreciate the fact that they, whoever sent that, try to fool him into thinking that this activity happened when Cebu was placed under GCQ,” she said.

Frasco is married to Garcia’s daughter, Christina, the mayor of Liloan town.

Cebu recorded 5,226 active cases of COVID-19 as of Wednesday. Since the pandemic started last year, the province posted 27,103 cases with 20,594 recoveries and 1,283 deaths.