THE NUMBER of violators arrested in the police’s anti-loitering drive in Metro Manila has breached the half-million mark, most of those arrested were violators of the smoking ban and for going out of their houses “half-naked”.
Director Guillermo Eleazar, director of the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO), said a total of 504,644 violators were collared since the intensified implementation of various ordinances on June 13 this year.
But Eleazar was quick to emphasize that those arrested were immediately released after paying the corresponding fine and due to humanitarian considerations, adding that first offenders for instance are just being warned.
In fact, he said only nine people of the more than 500,000 arrested remain under police custody.
Based on the PNP data a total of 340,006 have been warned since the operation, which was initially called anti-tambay operation, was launched while almost 100,00 were fined.
On the other hand, a total of 67,039 were charged.
Eleazar said violators of smoking ban top the list of those arrested with 140,980 which represents almost 28 percent of the total number of arrested persons.
This was followed by going out of the house shirtless, violation of curfew for minors and drinking in public places.
Quezon City tops the list in terms of the number of violators arrested with 295,911 or 58.64 percent of the arrested violators in Metro Manila. This was followed by Eastern Police District which covers San Juan, Mandaluyong, Marikina and Pasig. (Aaron Recuenco)