Gov’t
may carry out stricter measures if people keep disregarding health protocols,
President Duterte warns
President Rodrigo Roa Duterte presides over the meeting with the Inter-Agency Task Force on the Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) core members prior to his talk to the people at the Kingdom of Jesus Christ Compound in Davao City on June 7, 2021. JOEY DALUMPINES/ PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO
The government may carry out stricter measures against people disregarding government-mandated health protocols and quarantine restrictions aimed at containing the spread of COVID-19, President Rodrigo Roa Duterte warned on Monday.
In
his weekly public address, President Duterte did not specify what measures
might be tweaked, pointing out, however, of seeing people not following
government rules especially in the Visayas and Mindanao.
“We
might calibrate our response to the intransigence that you will show. Depende
sa ano ninyo. Kung talagang ayaw ninyong sumunod, then we can go into marami,
marami. I could... Ayaw ko lang sabihin but we have the power to control it
actually kung ginusto lang namin pahirapan ang tao,” he said.
He
said that for as long as Filipinos do not honor the protocols prescribed by the
government, many people will continue to get infected with COVID-19.
The
government put Metro Manila and its adjacent provinces of Bulacan, Cavite,
Laguna, and Rizal under enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) and modified ECQ in
March to mid-May due to increasing number of COVID-19 cases.
The restrictions were eventually downgraded to a general community quarantine (GCQ) after National Capital Region saw drop in cases.
Despite
the decrease in the number of cases, the country continues to record new
infections of 6,000 to 7,000, with health officials attributing the spike to
the higher cases logged in the Visayas and Mindanao.
Meanwhile,
the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) reported filing
cases against six barangay officials who failed to prevent super spreader
events in their jurisdictions.
In
his report to the President, Interior and Local Government Secretary Eduardo
AΓ±o said those facing charges were village chiefs from Caloocan City, Navotas
City, Tondo, Manila, Norzagaray, Bulacan, Malay, Aklan, and Cebu City.
The
President has previously ordered the arrest of barangay captains in case mass
gatherings happened in their jurisdictions, saying it is dereliction of
duty. PND
