A ranking official of the Commission on Human Rights on Wednesday urged the Philippine National Police to define the meaning of “tambay” before the implementation of the anti-loitering campaign.
President Rodrigo Duterte, however, claimed no “tambay” has been arrested even as policemen have rounded up thousands of loiterers in the capital.
“Just follow my order. No one has been arrested. I just don’t want you using the streets to loiter,” the President said in a speech in Iloilo.
In an ANC television interview, Commissioner Gwendolyn Pimentel Gana called on the police to suspend its campaign against those loitering in the streets.
“I heard yesterday [Tuesday] that PNP chief [Oscar] Albayalde said they will have to collate all local ordinances and come up with guidelines. But even in collating, they have to realize that the jurisdiction or effectivity of such ordinance is just within the town and city,” she said.
Before the crackdown against the so-called “tambays,” the police should have done first the collation of all ordinances on anti-loitering, she said.
“They [police] have to be very clear on that. That [campaign] cannot be [that] sweeping,” she added.
“What is the extent of this crackdown? If we call it crackdown, or this arresting of tambays? And what is the meaning of tambays? So that people will also know,” she said.
“Am I being a tambay if I do this? If I go to a sari-sari store at night, do I fear that I’m just going to be nabbed by a policeman because I’m a tambay?” she asked.
She said the commission is looking into any human rights violations in the drive against “tambays.”
Meanwhile, in the Senate, Senator Grace Poe herself noted that implementing the anti-loitering campaign needed safeguards against violation of human rights.
In a statement, Poe said: “We recognize the objectives of the ‘anti-tambay operations,’ however, implementing it requires clear guidelines and safeguards against violation of human rights.
“The Philippine National Police should orient its enforcers on the ground on how to handle the so-called loiterers, mindful of their rights and exercising the highest degree of restraint that authorities should observe.
“We want this to succeed so that our streets would be ridden of criminals and unscrupulous elements without instilling fear and misery among the public.”
Meanwhile, placard-bearing members of the Akbayan Youth group gathered Wednesday at the Kalayaan market in Barangay Central, Diliman, Quezon City and slammed the PNP for the arrest of 2,981 bystanders in Metro Manila alone from June 13 to June 18.
“Hanging out is not a crime,” Akbayan member Justine Balane said.