The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) will not hesitate to press charges against persons who violate health protocols, such as not wearing face masks outdoors, as the COVID-19 pandemic lingers, an official said Tuesday.
Interior Undersecretary Martin Diño, who handles barangay affairs, said villages still continue to monitor health violators, including in Cebu province where Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia and the provincial board have relaxed the face mask rule.
“For us, we are enforcing health protocols, and violating those will have penalties,” he said in a televised briefing.
“We will impose that. If there were no penalties in the locality, we will file a case in the prosecutor’s office. Remember that there is a law,” Dino added, referring to the Bayanihan to Heal and Recover as One Acts, which necessitates the DOH
to implement a COVID-19 “control plan” for the public.
However, at the Laging Handa public briefing, Diño also said the DILG would wait for the Palace’s decision after Garcia refused the department’s ultimatum to change her order.
“If that’s what Governor Gwen wants, let’s see what the law provides as well as the decision of Malacañang about this ordinance in Cebu,” he said.
The DILG gave the Cebu provincial government only until last weekend to rectify Garcia’s provincial Executive Order 16 on the optional wearing of face masks in well-ventilated and open areas —drawing the ire of the DILG and the Department of Health.
Malacañang had said the rules being carried out by the COVID-19 task force trump local orders.
Diño also insisted that barangay officials were tasked to implement COVID-19 rules.
“We ordered our barangays to enforce the guidelines of the inter-agency task force, most especially on face mask-wearing. We will enforce it even though Cebu province has an ordinance,” he said.
Interior Secretary Eduardo Año – who like most officials of the Executive Branch steps down from office on June 30 — earlier said he is mulling filing charges against Garcia over her EO 16.
“We will exhaust all options. The Office of the President gave instructions that we should seek all possible remedies before pursuing legal actions,” he said.
But Garcia has stressed that she has the mandate from “1.4 million Cebuanos (who) voted me into office after the liberal policies that I have implemented in the province trying to put (the provincial) economy back on its feet,” she said.
“I have a responsibility to the Cebuanos, not to unelected and outgoing officials,” she added – a group that includes Ano and President Rodrigo Duterte, who has said the face mask mandate stays.
So far, Diño said no barangay has expressed interest in issuing an ordinance to make wearing face masks optional in their areas.
“None. Barangays are compliant because they know their struggles and efforts in over two years in response to the COVID-19 pandemic,” he said.