The Interior and Local Government Department yesterday ordered three governors and two mayors to explain why they allegedly violated guidelines that were being implemented during Luzon’s enhanced community quarantine (ECQ).
“As directed by the President himself, we will not go easy on local government officials who will violate the prescribed directives during the ECQ,” Secretary Eduardo Año said in a statement.
Año accused the governors and mayors of “negligence, dereliction of duty, and violation of the Bayanihan Act,” a law which grants the president broad powers against COVID-19, and which calls for local government officials to implement national government’s rules on preventing the spread of the virus. Año did not name who the officials were but gave the local chief executives 48 hours to submit a written explanation stating clearly why no administrative cases should be filed against them.
“Failure to do so will result in an automatic administrative case to be filed before the Office of the Ombudsman,” he said.
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Interior Department Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya said in the same statement that the officials’ violations include failure to stop mass gatherings and strictly implement social distancing measures. The local chief executives also allegedly prohibited the operation of food-related businesses and refused the entry of essential personnel like health workers into their respective towns and provinces, among others.
Malaya said that the department “will file the necessary cases against them. Once we have done so, we can now release their names to the public because cases are now pending against them.”
“The point of all of these national policies is to ensure unity, cohesion, and order in the entire country during the COVID-19 crisis which requires the LGU’s [local government unit] full cooperation and compliance,” Año said.
