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Journo, netizens question detaining curfew violators anew, points to possible ‘spread centers’ for COVID-19

This critique comes in even as local governments show how violators and enforcers try their best to maintain health protocols.

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March 15 marked not just the anniversary of the country’s lockdown, it also marked a near-360-degree return to policies enforced in 2020.

US-based Filipino journalist Barnaby Lo was one of the first to point out how the government’s policy of detaining quarantine violators was flawed.

Lo argues that protocol violators, particularly those who were out between 10 pm and 5 am last Monday, March 15, should have just been told off on the spot and promptly sent home.

“Why gather them in one place to either tell them off or punish them? They might end up spreading the virus,” Lo tweeted in Filipino.

He would also criticize the national government as this has been the policy since March 2020.

This tweet would have likely been in response to reports of cities intensifying efforts to arrest curfew violators, like this one from Pasay City.

According to Pasay City Police chief Cesar Paday-os, Filipinos give a myriad of reasons to go out even if they know that a curfew is in effect.

Healthcare experts, on the other hand, would call out both the national and local governments for implementing curfews and liquor bans instead of improving contact-tracing and other medical-based solutions to battle the pandemic.

Netizens agreed with health experts, who have also pointed out how the government’s general policies have not yet changed since 2020.

https://twitter.com/altbohol/status/1371737411894398977

https://twitter.com/nickotalavera_/status/1371735047485620227

Some netizens even called out certain government officials who attended gatherings, which at the time were still banned because of stricter health protocols.

https://twitter.com/hueljay/status/1371675357082841088

Some netizens, however, did raise a good point: people who were out at night, i.e. “drunkards, partygoers, and stoners”, were harder to control.

However, this would be proven false as most of the curfew violators looked sober—even as they were kept in make-shift detention centers until the end of the curfew.

One netizen even harked back a major event early on in the lockdown: the unfortunate death of a retired military man who had post traumatic stress disorder from his final tour of duty in Marawi.

Another netizen highlighted something worse: the chance of being detained for supposedly violating quarantine protocols, yet working in an industry that basically lives between 10 pm and 5 am—the business process outsourcing industry.

https://twitter.com/gnzls_mariane/status/1370924122897743874

To date, the government has not reevaluated their policy on health protocol violations as President Rodrigo Duterte had previously instructed local officials to detain them.

Duterte, however, would also show a bit of forward thinking as he insisted on purchasing face masks and giving them away to those who do not have them.

Face mask violations are some of the more common violations currently being shared on social media.

COVID-19curfew violatorsgovernment policyLGUspasay citySolusyong medikal hindi militarsuper spreader “events"

Written by Andronico Del Rosario

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