Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday night announced that he wants to deploy policemen to guard quarantine hotels to prevent individuals from escaping facility and skip their quarantine. Recently, a balikbayan woman – Gwyneth Ann Chua went viral as she skipped her quarantine last December in the Berjaya Makati Hotel to attend a year end party in Barangay Poblacion, Makati.
Breaching the mandated quarantine protocols, Chua infected her co-party goers and friends with the coronavirus contributing the rise to the National Capital Region’s (NCR) COVID-19 cases.
Duterte, during his weekly virtual address asked Interior Secretary Eduardo Año if it would be probable to deploy at least two cops in two shifts in each quarantine hotel.
“Much as we would like really to control, I am going after the mga suwail. Hindi natin kayang pantayan talaga. The hotel is correct. They cannot be doing the police work for the government. We can maybe designate them but as to the enforcement, they can’t really enforce this quarantine,” Duterte said.
“What I propose for the government to do is we have yet to see this with Secretary Año, ‘Sir kaya mong maglagay ng police sa mga hotels na ginagamit pang quarantine ng gobyerno? Dalawang pulis, in two shifts para diyan lang,” he added.
Año said that he already talked with the officials of Philippine National Police (PNP) and is on the process of deploying certain personnel on selected government managed facilities.
“Yes Mr. President, Nag-usap na po kami ni Chief Philippine National Police Dionardo Carlos tungkol dito at naghanda na po sila,” Año replied.
Meanwhile, the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) of the PNP has already filed a complaint against Chua at the Makati Prosecutors Office. Chua may face prison after breaching health protocols and her quarantine period and by putting her friends at risk under the coronavirus.
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