THE Philippine National Police (PNP) has disowned an advisory on travel ban guidelines which two major news outlets claimed has led to arrests and sowed confusion over the enhanced community quarantine on Luzon island.
A bogus graphics that spread on social media claimed one person per household is allowed to travel between 5 a.m. to 8 a.m., 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., and 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Travel is banned from 10 a.m.-to-2 p.m. and the 2 p.m.-to-5 p.m. while curfew spans from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m., it added.
The Inquirer and Rappler reported the spurious advisory was used by police in the field to apprehend people on Saturday, prompting both the Department of Justice and the PNP to issue clarifications.
"Walang ganyang ka-specific guidelines na galing sa IATF (There are no IATF guidelines as specific as that. That is unauthorized)," Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra, senior member of the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF), told reporters.
According to Rappler, about 30 people were rounded up at around 5 p.m. on Saturday at the foot of the Bacood-Mandaluyong Bridge in Manila by police based on the spurious advisory, a copy of which they had on their phones.
Over a dozen people were held at a station in Pasig for over an hour around 4:30 pm for not having quarantine passes, Rappler added.
Curfew in Pasig is only from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m.
Justice Undersecretary Markk Perete, spokesman of the Department of Justice, said the PNP has assured that it will relay the clarification to "the local units to prevent further reliance on this for arrest."
Window hours for the curfew have been a major source of confusion since the enhanced community quarantine was imposed last week. The PNP has allowed local government units to enforce their own window hours.
To be sure, check the advisory of the town of city where you live. And better be sure the advisory you're relying on is not fake.
Source: Spin PH
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