Police deployment on quarantine hotels just temporary as COVID-19 cases rise — Año

Interior Secretary Eduardo Año on Wednesday said the deployment of cops in hotels serving as quarantine facilities is just temporary following the “surge” of COVID-19 cases.

Interviewed on CNN Philippines, Año said two police personnel will be stationed in every quarantine hotel in the country.

“Hindi naman kasi ito permanent, while we are experiencing a surge at nasa [Alert] Level 3 tayo (This is not permanent, only while we are experiencing a surge and at Alert Level 3),” he said.

Año pointed out that later on, quarantine hotels will instill the “instinct” of guarding returning overseas Filipinos who are under quarantine in their facilities.

He made the statement when asked if the deployment would only waste the efforts of the cops considering that not all quarantine hotels are committing breach in quarantine protocols.

According to Año, there are at least 1,000 quarantine hotels in the country. He said that the deployment of cops already started on Wednesday.

‘Police ops won’t be compromised’

For his part, the Philippine National Police assured the public that current police operations won’t be compromised with the additional task.

In a statement, PNP spokesperson Police Colonel Roderick Albam said PNP chief Police General Dionardo Carlos has ordered a strategized deployment of personnel for different functions.

“[The] chief PNP has already given instructions to our [Deputy PNP Chief for Operations] to strategize and rationalize the deployment of our personnel,” Albam said.

He added that this is to ensure other tasks of the PNP, including relief and rehab efforts for Typhoon Odette and other public safety and security services, will not be compromised.

According to Carlos, they will only assign two personnel every quarantine hotel.             

“The instruction is to assign two police personnel in each hotel for every shift. I will ask the concerned police units to strategize and rationalize the deployment of personnel so as not to compromise the other tasks that need to be delivered,” he said.

Assigned personnel will man a common inter-agency helpdesk in each hotel in coordination with the Department of Tourism, Bureau of Quarantine. Philippine Coast Guard, and local governments.

“This effort will strengthen our monitoring to those establishments that are  non-compliant to protocol,” Carlos said.

On Tuesday, President Rodrigo Duterte ordered law enforcers to guard hotels serving as quarantines for returning Filipinos.

This is after a viral report of a woman who  skipped quarantine after arriving from the United States. — Joviland Rita/RSJ, GMA News