Senate President Vicente Sotto III said Thursday he supports President Rodrigo Duterte’s order to arrest and detain people caught not wearing a face mask in public areas.
“Siguro okay lang yun para sumunod talaga tayo. Matakot kang makulong ng siyam na oras. Kailangan kung minsan, merong mga bagay at mga issue na dapat strong arm ang dating e,” Sotto said in an online interview.
[Maybe it’s okay to detain violators for nine hours so people will obey rules. There are violations that need to be dealt with iron hand.]
“Ang daming matigas ang ulo e. Nag-iinuman pa sa kalsada, ang tatapang pa e. Ano ba? Gusto ba nating ganun lang, ganun na lang sila?” (Some people are stubborn. They even drink liquor in the streets. Do we tolerate that?) Sotto added.
President Rodrigo Duterte ordered the police to arrest and detain people who were not wearing and wearing the wrong face mask.
Duterte made the statement on Wednesday in his second TV address this week.
Sotto supports Duterte’s order to arrest, detain face mask violators
The president said there is a need to restrict the directive on the wearing and proper use of face masks to prevent the increase of COVID-19 cases.
“My orders to the police, those who are not wearing their masks properly in order to protect the public… to arrest them and detain them, investigate them why they are doing it,” Duterte said.
“Yug ayaw maniwala, gusto mo, ayaw mo usapan na maganda, ah di ayan hulihin mo. Imbestigahin mo. Nine hours stay in station,” he added.
The number of new COVID-19 cases recorded in the country has dropped by 11% in the past seven days.
According to Dr. Guido David of OCTA Research the country has recorded only 8,246 average cases of the disease in the past week.
He said this is 11% lower compared to the previous average of 9,253 cases.
However, he clarified that it should not yet be viewed as an effect of the modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) as he said the result of the existing quarantine status in the NCR Plus areas will still be seen next week.
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