Freedom of expression and public health should be tightly balanced in this time of the pandemic, Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Gen. Guillermo Eleazar on Sunday said as he warned some anti-vaccine individuals for defying the quarantine protocols by holding protest actions.
This, after members of the group Gising Maharlika recently held a protest action with most of them not wearing face masks at the Liwasang Bonifacio in Manila to oppose the vaccination program of the national government.
Eleazar said he respects the belief of some Filipinos who still say there is no Covid-19 “pero matuto din sana kayong igalang ang paniniwala ng mas maraming bilang ng mga Pilipino, kabilang na ang mga namatayan at nahawa at lalung-lalo na ang ating mga healthcare workers na nasa frontline ng laban na ito (but you should learn to respect the belief of majority of Filipinos, including those who have family members who died and become infected especially our healthcare workers on the frontline of this battle).”
“Holding protest actions to insist on what you believe in does not make it right. It is but plain and simple acts of defiance and irresponsibility because you are putting our personnel and other civilian population at risk of being infected,” he said.
He said the PNP will strictly monitor if there will be protest actions by anti-vaxxers that would violate the minimum public health standard.
“Ipinakita ng inyong kapulisan ang maximum tolerance at pagrespeto sa inyong paniniwala nang magsagawa kayo ng kilos-protesta na walang suot na proteksyon. Binabalaan ko kayo na maaring hindi na kayo pagbigyan kapag inulit pa ninyo ang pambabastos sa paniniwala ng karamihan nating kababayan at pambabastos ninyo sa mga patakaran ng public health (The police have shown maximum tolerance and respect for your beliefs when you staged a protest action without wearing protection. I warn you that you may not be tolerated if you repeat the insult to the beliefs of majority of our countrymen and your insult to public health policies),” Eleazar said.
He directed local police chiefs to monitor the situation on the ground regarding possible mass actions wherein the protesters would deliberately not wear face masks and violate the public health safety protocols.
The inoculation program of the government continues amid the arrival of more doses of Covid-19 vaccines in the country.
Over 2 million doses of Pfizer from COVAX Facility and 3 million government-procured Sinovac vaccines are scheduled to arrive on Sunday night.
The country has so far received a total of nearly 60 million vaccine doses from various manufacturers, including over 36 million doses procured by the government.
As of Saturday, vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. said 22.7 million Filipinos have already received their first dose of Covid-19 vaccine while some 18.3 million are now fully vaccinated.
Eleazar renewed his appeal to the public to join the fight against the pandemic by strictly observing health and safety protocols after thousands of violators have been caught in the past few days.
“But this (violation) will not discourage your PNP to continuously assist in the enforcement of these rules because this is one of the effective measures that we see to contain the spread of the deadly coronavirus,” he said.
For his part, Interior Secretary Eduardo Año said police investigators are in the process of identifying those who attended the rally for possible filing charges for violation of health protocols.
“That’s currently being investigated by the Philippine National Police. They are easily trace, in coordination with the LGU (local government unit) and identify these people,” Año said in an interview on Super Radyo DZBB on Sunday.
“In the next few days, we will make sure that we will be able to identify these people. We have video footages,” Año also said.
Año, a key member of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging infectious Diseases which is addressing the pandemic, said the violators should be held accountable.
Metro Manila was placed under Alert Level 4 effective last Thursday. The system complements the declaration of granular down in areas where there are known Covid-19 infections.
He also said the enforcement of the Alert Level System in Metro Manila has been orderly so far and received good feedback.
“Maganda ang feedback at maayos naman ang pagpapatupad ng Alert Level System sa Metro Manila. May mga naging isyu, pero agad naman itong natugunan (The feedback is good and the implementation of the Alert Level system is orderly in Metro Manila. There were some issues, but these were immediately resolved),’’ Año said.
Año noted that more police officers will be dispatched at night to enforce the curfew policy.
He said a total of “171 small areas” in the National Capital Region (NCR) were placed under granular lockdown. (PNA)