Community service, fines eyed for violators of curfew, quarantine protocol

September 2, 2020

Joint Task Force COVID Shield on Wednesday said they prefer community service and payment of fines as penalties for violators of curfew and quarantine protocols against COVID-19.

Police Lt. Gen. Guillermo Eleazar, JTF commander, said arrest and filing of charges could be the last resort if  violators became unruly and disrespectful to law enforcers, or if the violators are repeat offenders.

Eleazar said community service and imposing certain amounts as fines are logical punishments since detaining violators would only put them at risk of infection inside cramped detention facilities.

“Almost all of the barangays and local government units (LGUs) have no detention facilities so the tendency is to turn over those who would be arrested to the local police. As part of the decongestion measures of police detention facilities, it is advisable that violators are punished by community service or payment of fine as sanctions,” he said.

“Warnings should not also be given to the violators because we have been enforcing them for more than five months now. Everybody should know by now about the curfew and other quarantine rules being enforced by the government,” he added.

Based on the task force's data, more than 360,000 quarantine protocol violators, including curfew violators, have been accosted since March 17.

Eleazar said community service as a penalty would serve as an additional manpower for the projects and programs of the LGUs like the cleanliness and beautification and fixing damaged school facilities.

Eleazar said  the money that would be paid by the violators is an additional source of income for COVID-19 response and programs of the LGUs.

But Eleazar said the penalties for curfew and quarantine violations still depend on the local ordinances of the LGUs.

In a memorandum issued by Maj. Gen. Emmanuel Luis Licup, PNP Director for Operations and vice commander of the JTF COVID Shield, police commanders were instructed to refrain from imposing physical punishments on curfew violators.

Licup also ordered local police commanders to mobilize barangay tanods and the city and municipal Public Order and Safety personnel to enforce curfew that include setting up of barangay checkpoints and conduct of regular community patrol.

He said all barangay checkpoints must be supervised but not necessarily manned by policemen. Ella Dionisio/DMS