Palace: No 'house-to-house' search for cops

MANILA, Philippines — The police won't conduct house-to-house search to find persons with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), Malacañang clarified Wednesday, as it claimed that staying in quarantine sites is not like imprisonment but going on a "paid for vacation."

Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said infected persons with no or mild COVID-19 symptoms would be asked to voluntarily go to quarantine sites, which he said has "excellent" facilities.  

"You know, they will not go house to house, they will have to be reported. They will have to be reported by the persons themselves, their family or the barangay. There is a law, which is RA (Republic Act) 11332, which says that they have to report communicable diseases," Roque told ABS-CBN News Channel.

"Now, we prefer that the asymptomatics and the mild cases voluntarily surrender and confine themselves in isolation centers. We are enticing them with the fact that these are airconditioned centers, free lodging, free meals three times a day and with free WiFi and with a graduation ceremony... after the 14-day quarantine period," he added.  

Roque said the isolation facilities have doctors and nurses that would attend to the needs of the patients. The state can isolate people with communicable disease who refuse to undergo quarantine, he added.

"I don’t think it will go to that extent because we are trying precisely to entice them with excellent facility. It’s a paid for vacation in an airconditioned facility So, it’s not as if they are going to be brought to the gulag and to the jails," the Palace spokesman said.

"In my press briefing, we will soon show to the nation how these We Heal as One and Ligtas centers look like. They look like hotels so it’s not as if they will be sent to the gulag and sent to solitary confinement," he added.

The government is now discouraging infected persons with mild or no symptoms to undergo home quarantine, saying it could further spread the virus. Officials said patients cannot isolate themselves at home if they don't have their own room and bathroom and if they are living with persons who are vulnerable to COVID-19 like senior citizens and people with existing medical conditions.

Last Tuesday, Interior Secretary Eduardo Año said authorities would go house to house to look for persons with COVID-19 who are not in quarantine facilities. Various sectors have expressed alarm over the plan, saying it would violate the constitutional right of persons to be secure in their homes

Roque clarified that the patients would be transferred to quarantine centers by health workers, not by policemen.

"The local health workers are the ones who will lead the transfer of COVID positive patients from their homes to government quarantine facilities, which we call 'Oplan Kalinga.' Police presence is merely to provide support or assistance in the transport of patients and the implementation of lockdown in the affected area," the Palace spokesman said in a statement.

Roque chided administration critics for supposedly "weaponizing" the quarantine measure. He maintained that contact tracing is a valid exercise of police power by the state to protect citizens from public health threats.

"We find it unfortunate that critics and detractors of the Duterte administration are using the important strategy of contract tracing to vilify the current government," he said.

"Let us not delve into unproductive speculation and instead help our communities to be COVID-19 free," he added.