348 lawmen to enforce Navotas lockdown

MANILA, Philippines — The national government will deploy at least 348 police officers, including Special Action Force (SAF) commandos, and soldiers in Navotas to beef up security in the city, which will be placed on a 14-day residential lockdown from Thursday until July 29.

Mayor Toby Tiangco signed on Monday an executive order (EO) putting the entire city on lockdown to stop the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 or COVID-19 from several households.

“Contact tracing revealed that individuals confirmed to have COVID-19 come from the same family, therefore requiring a lockdown in order not to further spread the virus into the community,” the EO read.

According to the EO, there were 312 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Navotas for the month of June, of which 125 were recorded from June 24 to 30 when Metro Manila was under general community quarantine (GCQ).

The lockdown is also necessary in order not to “overwhelm” the city’s COVID-19 facilities with new cases, according to the EO. The lone Navotas City Hospital and the city’s two community isolation facilities have exceeded their capacity.

Vehicles passing through Navotas will only be allowed along C4, C3, North Bay Boulevard, Lapu-Lapu Avenue and Road 10.

Reinforcements

Lt. Gen. Guillermo Eleazar, Philipine National Police (PNP) deputy chief for operations, said the security contigent will reinforce the local police in implementing the lockdown to contain the movement of residents to contain the spread of the virus.

“Our task is to contain the unnecessary movement of people and keep all residents at home except for the medical frontliners and other people who are authorized to go out,” he said in a statement.

The security contingent consists of 100 police officers from the National Capital Region Police Office, 100 from the Northern Police District, 81 SAF troopers, 42 personnel of the Maritime Group and 25 Army soldiers.

SAF commandos will conduct regular patrol while the maritime police will patrol the city’s coastline.

Eleazar said the deployment “is part of the medical solution as it is focused on prevention of the transmission of the coronavirus.”