MANILA, Philippines — As in most of its coronavirus initiatives, the national government is calling on local governments and the national police to enforce prohibitions on movement amid the implementation of the "bubble area" in Metro Manila and four provinces in Calabarzon and Central Luzon.
This comes as President Rodrigo Duterte approved tighter coronavirus restrictions to address a continued surge in cases, including the banning of mass gatherings and non-essential travel in those areas for two weeks.
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In a statement sent to reporters, the Department of the Interior and Local Government said it directed the Philippine National Police to conduct border checkpoints in restricted areas "to prevent the entry and exit of non-essential workers" and to enforce the uniform curfew hours.
"We need to tighten because COVID-19 cases have increased again. Mass gatherings put the people, their families, and communities at risk of contracting the virus. They can become super-spreader events. We therefore need everyone's cooperation on the measures that the government is imposing to prevent the spread of the virus," DILG officer-in-charge Bernardo Florece said.
As it currently stands, the PNP has already deployed some 10,000 police officers in Metro Manila to enforce the uniform curfew in the capital region.
Over the past week of uniform curfew in Metro Manila, the Philippine National Police accosted more than 19,000 quarantine violators, 5,300 of whom were arrested.
Yet this show of force could do little as cases have since spiked to over 7,000 daily additions for the past three days.
“LGUs should immediately deploy their COVID-marshalls, Barangay Disiplina Brigades, barangay tanods (watchmen), and other force multipliers to enforce the prohibition against mass gatherings,” Florece also said.
"We have been through this before and we were able to limit the number of cases per day. We should be able to weather this second surge with public cooperation."
Health officials recorded 7,757 additional COVID-19 infections Sunday, bringing the national caseload to 663,794.
It was the second-highest daily coronavirus addition in the country, which has been on lockdown for 370 days—good for the longest quarantine in the world.
— Franco Luna