By AARON RECUENCO
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Local police commanders across the country were instructed to coordinate with their respective Local Government Units (LGUs) for the fetching of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) patients from their homes and their transport to government isolation facilities.
Police Lt. Gen. Guillermo Lorenzo Eleazar, commander of the Joint Task Force COVID Shield, said coordination was already made with the Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief Gen. Archie Gamboa based on the instruction of Interior Secretary Eduardo Año for the local commanders to come up with a guideline on the role of the police under Oplan Kalinga.
Oplan Kalinga is a program of the National Task Force Against COVID-19 wherein all confirmed COVID-19 patients, either showing mild symptoms or asymptomatic, should be transferred to the government isolation facilities in order to protect their family members from being infected.
The program as criticized in the social media after netizens accused the government of militarizing the approach against COVID-19 and even likened the strategy to the bloody drug war under the Oplan Katok campaign.
But Eleazar was quick to clarify that it is not the police who will take the lead in fetching COVID-19 patients from their homes.
“As per the instruction of Secretary of the Interior and Local Government (SILG) Eduardo Año, it is the health officers of the LGUs who will lead the fetching of the COVID-19 from their homes. The local police forces’ presence is only in the form of assistance for any eventuality and especially in escorting the patients to the isolation facilities,” said Eleazar.
Eleazar said it is the local health workers who will be tasked to identify the houses of COVID patients and explain to the COVID-19 patients and their family about the Oplan Kalinga.
“It is not the policemen who will do the explaining and the police will not even the one who would knock on the doors of the houses of COVID-19 patients. Our personnel would just be on standby unless they are invited inside the house or their presence is needed inside,” said Eleazar.
He said that policemen who will be tapped to assist the local health workers will also be provided with appropriate Personal Protective Equipment.
Eleazar added that part of the coordination between the local police and the LGUs is the identification of vehicles that will be used in fetching the COVID-19 patients, including involvement of other agencies like the Bureau of Fire Protection which has the capability to handle the transportation of COVID-19 patients.
PRO-POOR
Critics in the social media argued that the Oplan Kalinga is anti-poor since it would only target poor residents.
But Eleazar said that contrary to criticisms, the program is actually the other way around since it would provide the poor COVID patients the opportunity to isolate themselves and not compromise the safety of their respective families, and imposed quarantine on a facility that would provide everything that they need for free.
“And this is not anti-poor as some people would say. This is in fact pro-poor because we would be prioritizing COVID-19 patients who have no means to isolate themselves inside their houses because of the reality that they do not have a room to spare for self-quarantine,” said Eleazar.
He added that Oplan Kalinga is also for the protection of the COVID-19 patients and their family from discrimination and other forms of harassments from their neighbors who see them as threat to community health.
