MANILA – Philippine National Police (PNP) chief, Gen. Guillermo Eleazar instructed all police chiefs on Sunday to deploy additional cops in public areas to prevent mass gatherings that can be called super spreader events amid risk of more contagious Covid-19 Delta variant.
Eleazar gave the order after Department of the Interior and Local Government Secretary Eduardo Año stated that he will instruct the PNP and other law enforcement agencies to increase their visibility in public locations to guarantee that health protocols are followed and mass gatherings are averted.
He mentioned that police chiefs should decide how many more personnel are needed to secure public places and other establishments in their jurisdictions and deploy them promptly.
“This enforcement of protocols should be done jointly by the police and the local officials, especially barangay workers,” he said in a statement.
Año has warned that local chief executives will be held accountable for noncompliance of health and safety protocols in their respective jurisdictions.
After local cases of the Covid-19 Delta variant were detected in the country, he stated quarantine regulations should always be strictly enforced.
Eleazar said that the PNP will work closely with the national government to investigate how law enforcers could improve the implementation of quarantine protocols.
