Majority of the people in Luzon have complied with the mandatory home quarantine during lockdown in Luzon by day, but some of them may have attempted to violate it by night.
Citing the “Community Mobile Report” of multinational technology firm, Google, Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles said there was a significant decline in the number of activities in “industries” in Luzon and an increase in activities in residential areas.
“So meaning to say, if you look at that study, it means that everybody, almost everybody cooperated with the stay at home [policy],” Nograles said during an online press briefing on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, Google Philippines Public Policy and Government relations chief Eves Gonazales said in an interview in PTV that Filipinos in Luzon were mostly in transit stations, in their residences, groceries and restaurants during the first three weeks of the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) in Luzon.
In a separate interview in PTV, Joint Task Force Corona Virus Shield deputy chief for operations Police Lieutenant General Guillermo Eleazar, however, noted that they were able to accost 93,000 people, who violated the curfew for the ECQ.
He noted that 71 percent or about 66,000 of these people were only given warnings.
About 4,000 of them were fined ,while 22,000 were arrested and filed the necessary charges for violating curfew ordinances.
“So we will continue with our campaign [in implementing the curfew]. We are asking for the cooperation and assistance of our barangay officials in implementing this. We will not hesitate to arrest those who are violating this,” Eleazar said.
The government imposed the mandatory home quarantine for the duration of the ECQ, which is now expected to be relaxed by 30 April 2020, to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus disease (Covid-19).
Image credits: AP/Aaron Favila