ANY affected private person can file a case against people who knowingly violate mandatory quarantine ordinances of local government units (LGU).
Asked about the liabilities of one Gwyneth Anne Chua under the law, after evidence was gathered by the Department of Tourism (DOT) that she partied upon her return to Manila instead of undergoing quarantine at Berjaya Hotel, where she was supposedly checked in, Justice Secretary Menardo I. Guevarra told the BusinessMirror, “If there’s factual basis, the quickest legal action is through a complaint for violation of local ordinances on mandatory quarantine. This is without prejudice to an investigation and possible prosecution for violation of Republic Act 11332 and/or other statutes.”
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Asked who can bring charges against Chua, Guevarra added, “The LGU, PNP (Philippine National Police), the DOH (Department of Health), the DOT, even an interested or affected private person may file the complaint.” Chua, dubbed by netizens as ‘Poblacion girl’, was lambasted on social media for not following mandatory quarantine guidelines.
“In fact, her friends asked why she was already out partying, instead of being in quarantine [in Berjaya Hotel], and she claimed to have ‘connections’,” according to Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo Puyat in an interview with this paper. She identified a bar in Poblacion, Makati, popular among millennials, as one of the venues where Chua allegedly partied with friends.
Under Makati City Ordinance 2020-088, enacted on April 8, 2020, persons under quarantine are not supposed to make any personal contact with other persons except for medical frontliners treating them. Also, those violating the quarantine guidelines and protocols imposed by the DOH and city health office will be penalized a fine of P5,000 for first and second offenses. For third and fourth offenses, the fine is still P5,000 “and/or a maximum of one-year imprisonment upon the discretion of the court.”
Makati Mayor Abby Binay has yet to make any statement regarding the possible violations of Chua, Berjaya Hotel, and the bar in Poblacion against city ordinances.
Separate charges can also be brought against Chua for violating her mandatory quarantine by the PNP, “after it has established evidence of violation of RA 11332. Let them finish the investigation,” said Interior Undersecretary Epimaco V. Densing III. RA 11332 was enacted in April 2019, and provides penalties for violations of said law.
“Once a complaint is filed, say by the PNP, the DOJ will do a preliminary investigation ok the complaint filed (through their fiscals). If there is probable cause, the fiscal will file the criminal case in court,” he said in a text message.
In lieu of a PNP complaint, Densing said “a private person with personal knowledge [can] file directly to the fiscal.” Under Section 9 of RA 11332, among the prohibited acts include “Non-cooperation of the person or entities identified as having the notifiable disease, or affected by the health event of public concern.” Violators “shall be penalized with a fine of not less than ₱20,000, but not more than ₱50,000, or imprisonment of not less than one month but not more than six months, or both such fine and imprisonment, at the discretion of the proper court.”
Berjaya Hotel, where Chua was supposed to have quarantined while waiting to be RT-PCR tested on the fifth from her arrival from the US, can also be held liable for violating Makati City ordinances and national laws. According to Romulo Puyat, Berjaya assured them that Chua was in quarantine, but evidence gathered from social media and affidavits filed by those who encountered the balikbayan in a bar in Poblacion, Makati indicated otherwise. The DOT can also penalize the hotel for said violations, although its fines are small.
For instance, in the case of City Garden Hotel, where flight attendant Christine Dacera was found dead after a night of New Year’s revelry last year, it was only fined P10,000 and was forced to suspend its operations for just three months for hosting the staycation of Dacera and her buddies.