EDITORIAL - Above the law?

Criminal charges are being readied against Metro Manila police chief Maj. Gen. Debold Sinas, for violating the law on the response to the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic.

This will be on top of administrative charges that may be filed against the chief of the National Capital Region Police Office in connection with a gathering of dozens of people to celebrate his 55th birthday on May 8. The guests will be included in the charge sheet.

Sinas said it was not a “party” but a “mañanita” – a serenade traditionally given by Philippine National Police personnel to their commanders on their birthday. One photo posted by the NCRPO on its website showed the celebrant and his guests with beer cans, although Sinas claimed this was taken last December.

Mañanita has swiftly become part of the COVID pandemic lexicon of Filipinos, alongside physical distancing, hard lockdown, and the ever-growing abbreviations of community quarantine permutations: ECQ, MECQ, GCQ, MGCQ.

The birthday non-party is also threatening to be used as a model of those who are chafing against COVID quarantine restrictions, notably against gatherings of more than 10 people for any reason, wearing of masks in public, and social or physical distancing.

Those featured in the photographs that the NCRPO itself posted on its website, after all, are the very persons tasked to enforce the law outlining the quarantine rules: Republic Act 11469 or the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act.

In the early days of the quarantine, President Duterte had instructed state enforcers who encountered people who violently defied the rules to “shoot them dead.” A former Army soldier suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder has since been shot dead at a police checkpoint. Other quarantine violators have been arrested, held in cages, and made to swelter in the scorching summer heat.

Sinas, as of late yesterday afternoon, still had his post. Support from his superior, PNP chief Gen. Archie Gamboa, appeared to be crumbling as Malacañang ordered the filing of administrative charges against the NCRPO chief, with criminal charges expected to follow today.

The charges were filed amid outrage expressed particularly on social media. People have been prevented by quarantine rules from even holding family gatherings of more than 10 people. A foreigner was chased into his driveway for shouting at a cop who had accosted the foreigner’s househelper for not wearing a mask while watering the plants outside the house. Another cop had a shouting match with residents of a condominium building who were taking in the sun around the common pool.

Now the cops’ commander himself is seen flouting the rules. How can people be expected to “heal as one” when those tasked to enforce quarantine laws are the ones blatantly violating them?