President Rodrigo R. Duterte ordered the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) to deploy at least two police officers in hotels used as Covid-19 quarantine facilities to prevent incidents of persons skipping their mandatory quarantine.
He said hotel owners do not have the authority or power to stop people under quarantine from breaching protocols. He said hotel management “cannot be doing the police work of the government” when it comes to enforcing quarantine measures.
“They cannot physically stop [the quarantined individuals]. The only one who can stop them are government personnel placed in the hotel to work on the matter of placing people under quarantine,” Duterte said.
He asked Interior Secretary Eduardo Año if it is possible to deploy at least two police officers in hotel quarantine facilities in two shifts.
He issued the statement over the reported Filipina, who skipped her required quarantine period in a hotel in Berjaya Makati Hotel to go partying in a bar in Poblaction, Makati City.
The said erring individual later tested positive for novel coronavirus disease (Covid-19) and infected several people, who had closed contact with her.
Upon its investigation of the incident, the PNP said it will be filing charges against the nine people, including the Filipina, who violated quarantine rules, her parents and the hotel’s personnel.
Justice Secretary Menardo I. Guevarra agreed with Duterte that hotel personnel have no “coercive power” to stop individuals from leaving quarantine measures. However, he was quick to add that the management of hotels can still be held accountable if they fail to report to authorities an individual, who will leave its premises without any valid grounds under Republic Act No 11332 or Act on Mandatory Reporting of Notifiable Diseases.
“There is a provision there on non-cooperation as part of prohibited acts, Mr. President. And it seems to me that non-cooperation on the part of certain entities, which are charged with a duty to respond to the pandemic, may also be punishable,” Guevarra said.
“So these entities, Mr. President, may include establishments, which are charged with a duty, for example, as a quarantine hotel, to ensure that people who are quarantined within the establishment should not be able to jump the quarantine regulations,” he added.