Año: Individuals who refuse to comply with face mask rules will be arrested

Interior Secretary Eduardo Año on Friday said individuals who will refuse to comply with the directive to wear a face mask amid the coronavirus pandemic will be arrested by police.

Año said the Department of the Interior and Local Government and Philippine National Police will implement President Rodrigo Duterte’s order to arrest people not wearing masks in public “in accordance with law and local ordinances.”

“If the individual will defy or refuses to comply, arrests may be made by the police in order to protect public health and safety. In the absence of a local ordinance, violators will be detained for a maximum of 12 hours and will be released if no charges have been filed,” he said in a statement.

The Interior Secretary also directed all police stations nationwide to “prepare detention areas that do not violate minimum health standards.”

“They shall coordinate with the barangay and the LGUs so that additional facilities outside of police stations may be utilized for this purpose to prevent crowding and mass gatherings,” he said.

Earlier this week, Duterte told police to detain people who are not wearing masks or wearing masks improperly in public places. 

The Commission on Human Rights, meanwhile, has warned that this order may be “prone to excessive discretion and abuse.” 

The Philippine government’s pandemic response was previously flagged as “highly militarized” by the United Nations after some quarantine protocol violators suffered injuries or died at the hands of authorities. 

For Malacañang, Duterte’s latest directive is “certainly not” too harsh.  — Julia Mari Ornedo/RSJ, GMA News