Eleazar lauds role of barangay officials, tanods in fight vs coronavirus

August 16, 2020

The Joint Task Force COVID Shield on Sunday said barangay officials and the tanods are considered as formidable reinforcements in the government's fight against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

Police Lieutenant General Guillermo Eleazar, JTF commander, said the strengths of the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) are not enough to cover every alley and street of the country where violations of the quarantine rules usually occur.

“The battle against the COVID-19 is not only on the borders of every town and cities of the country where policemen and soldiers are deployed. The real battle is actually on every street and corner of more than 42,000 barangays of the country where violations of quarantine rules regularly occur,” he said.

He said the active participation of the LGUs, through the City and Municipal Public Order and Safety as well as the barangay tanods, in the government’s preventive measures is the missing link to fortify the country’s defense in the fight against the COVID-19.

He lauded some local chief executives who tapped their respective personnel to augment the PNP in the enforcement of quarantine rules.

Based on task force's data, a total of 320,102 violators were warned, fined and charged from March 17 when the government started implementing community quarantine up to August 14.

Eleazar believed there were more violators that were not properly checked at the barangay level following reports that people have engaged in drinking sessions, holding parties and other celebrations and even engaging in gossiping.

“We, in the JTF COVID Shield, believe that once the strict and proper implementation of quarantine rules are done down at the barangay level, we would be able to effectively contain the unnecessary movement of people and address violations that would eventually lead to the significant reduction of COVID-19 cases,” he said.

Earlier, JTF COVID Shield tasked all police commanders across the country to mobilize barangay tanods in the implementation of minimum health standard protocols.

Police Quarantine Rules Supervisors (QRS) were assigned in every barangay of the country to supervise the barangay tanods in the implementation of quarantine rules.

On the other hand, the public order and safety personnel of the cities and municipalities were also tapped to do the same at least in city and town proper where public markets, business establishments and other places of convergences are located.

The Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) is pushing for the implementation of the Barangay Disiplina Brigades in coordination with the Department of Health (DOH) and the LGUs.

The full utilization of barangay tanods is yet to materialize. Eleazar, however, expressed confidence that it would be done in the coming days, especially in Metro Manila and nearby provinces where Cabinet Secretaries were assigned to oversee the government’s fight against the COVID-19.

“The battle against COVID-19 is far from over. We will continue to live under the threat of coronavirus infection and the only option we have now to at least reduce the infection rate is for the national government and the LGUs to work together to keep the majority of law-abiding Filipinos in observing quarantine rules and to compel the rest of hard-headed Filipinos to conform with the norms,” he said. Ella Dionisio/DMS