Cops fan out for RODY

A police officer conducts an inventory of different kinds of liquors they confiscated as evidence at PNP Masambong station 2 in Quezon city during raid last night for violation of city ordinance 2301.EDWIN BACASMAS

Lawmen enforcing curfew and decency laws are springing into nighttime action across the metro—drawing unusual media coverage—with less than a month before the presidency is formally handed over to a tough-talking mayor who wants such restrictions strictly imposed nationwide.

In Las Piñas City, the police are invoking a curfew ordinance under “Oplan Rody,” inspired by their next commander in chief, incoming President Rodrigo Duterte.

But “Rody” also stands for “Rid the Streets of Drinkers and Youths,” according the local police chief, Senior Supt. Jemar Modequillo, whose men started rounding up minors last week, along with men drinking liquor or going around shirtless in the streets.

On Friday last week alone, Modequillo’s men brought in 57 minors, 23 drunken men and 16 other half-naked violators.

In an interview on Radyo Inquirer, Modequillo said “this is being done for long time already” and that those recently arrested were not charged but only lectured on why they were detained. “We told them that the (penalty) is a P1,000 to P2,000 fine or incarceration.’’

“Or they can do some exercises,” said the official, who ordered the grownups to do push-ups.

He said the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) called his attention after seeing the men punished that way in TV news reports, telling him that such a penalty was “prohibited.” But Modequillo said he was able to explain to the CHR that they had violated city ordinances.

“We had no intention to jail them. Those were minor arrests that’s why we just made them do push-ups,” he said.

In Pasay City, around 200 minors have been rounded up since Monday for violating the 10 p.m. curfew, Senior Supt. Joel Doria, chief of police. Around 80 of them were caught in Libertad, while the rest were in the Villamor, Buendia, Taft, Maricaban and Baclaran areas.

Like Modequillo, Doria said these operations had been going on since a curfew ordinance took effect in 1996 but the media then “didn’t take notice.”  “They are just being highlighted now maybe because of what they did Las Piñas.”

More arrests

Under the Pasay ordinance, first-time offenders are given a warning while second-timers are required to render community service. A third violation entails a P500 fine. “Those we caught this week, we just gave a warning to the parents and let them go.”

In Manila, at least 50 people, about a third of them minors, have been arrested since last week for drinking in public spaces.

At least 21 people were cited for this offense in Malate on June 2. Fifteen of the drinkers were underage and their parents were given warnings, said the MPD-Malate station commander, Supt. Aldrine Gran.

In Mandaluyong, 58 youths aged 15 years and below were rounded up on Monday night in various barangays also for curfew violations.

Chief Insp. Dominador Ignacio, assistant chief of police, said the teenagers were briefly detained until their parents fetched them. The parents were told of Ordinance No. 538, or the Code of Parental Responsibility, which has been in effect since March 2014, Ignacio said.

In Caloocan City, 18 residents were booked for going “topless” in the streets on Wednesday night, according to the police chief, Supt. Ferdinand del Rosario. The arrested men included one who said he just stepped out of his house to return a liquor bottle to the store.

“It’s a warning to violators that we are serious in implementing the ordinance. In other cities, offices make the offenders do push-ups; here in Caloocan, we jail them,” said SPO4 Joel Montebon, an investigator who prepared the cases for inquest proceedings.  Kristine Felisse Mangunay, Annelle Tayao-Juego, Jovic Yee, Jodee A. Agoncillo, Emichaella Añata and Carizza Ibañez