Task force sends out more cops 'to make homes conducive for online classes'
MANILA, Philippines — Over the education department's National School Opening Day program on Monday, the quarantine enforcement arm of the coronavirus task force said that it directed police commanders to further intensify police visibility to "make homes and communities conducive for online classes."
In a statement issued Sunday evening, Joint Task Force COVID Shield said that the directive was "buoyed by viral videos about how hard-headed quarantine violators would scamper away once a police patrol vehicle passes by."
The task force added that police leadership was again reminded to coordinate with the local government units at the barangay level to implement ordinances "that would support the online classes, including ordinances against drinking in public and others regulating the use of videoke during online classes."
Police Lt. Gen. Guillermo Eleazar, task force commander, said that recent videos showing quarantine violators running away and returning to their homes as police cars approach their area proved that they were aware of their violations.
'Minimize unnecessary noise'
It is not clear how having more cops on the roads can make homes and communities more conducive for online classes, although the task force said that the directive was meant to "minimize the unnecessary noise especially coming from quarantine violators."
“The police presence on the streets and in the community is also in time for the start of the classes for public schools nationwide. Through the police presence in the community, our online learners would not be disturbed and distracted by the noises coming from the people who hang out on the streets,” said Eleazar.
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“Our local police personnel and barangay officials should work together to extend all the necessary assistance to make sure that our online learners would be able to concentrate on their study,” he also said.
Some of the videos, Eleazar added, showed that most of those recorded were caught on camera not wearing face masks and violating protocols on mass gatherings. It is not clear if the videos were sent as reports to the task force or if they were sourced from "observations on social media," which the task force has used as the basis for intensified enforcement in the past.
Earlier, the task force put up a Facebook page to receive complaints of quarantine violations. When a group of youths were caught in pictures drinking at a birthday party, for instance, Taguig City police immediately took action and arrested all 16 of them.
No arrests were made during the government-sponsored "opening" of the Manila Baywalk the crushed dolomite shores in September, however. The mass gathering for some reason did not receive the same treatment as earlier protests against the controversial anti-terror law earlier in the quarantine and during the president's State of the Nation Address.
The joint task force also tasked police commanders to ensure that minors would not be allowed in internet shops as part of the quarantine rules.
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