More than 100 quarantine violators have been apprehended amid the “hard lockdown” imposed by Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso in Sampaloc, Manila since Thursday.
Data from the Manila Public Information Office showed that police apprehended have 109 individuals as of Friday night – 14 in the University Belt Area, six in España, nine in Sibama, 38 in Gulod, 35 in Lacson, and 11 in Calabash.
Violators were turned over to nearby holding facilities, particularly in the covered courts of Barangay 463, 581, and 420.
Moreno said over Facebook Live last Friday night that they would be charged according to quarantine-related laws as it would be unfair for residents who are following quarantine measures.
He imposed the two-day hard lockdown starting Thursday night in a bid to stem the COVID-19 outbreak in the area, which recorded the most number of cases in Manila.
Sampaloc has 113 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 161 suspected cases as of press time.
The Manila Health Department has conducted 2,465 swab tests under its mass testing program. Some 300 Sampaloc residents were tested through rapid test kits, Moreno said.
DIFFERENT SAMPALOC
Meanwhile, the once lively streets of Sampaloc have become visibly dead, a long-time resident observed, as a result of the enhanced community quarantine and hard lockdown.
Kenneth Manuel, through photos in his Facebook account, showed how the pandemic changed a lot of things. He said people have been taken out of the streets, which the area’s waist-deep flood problem never did.
“España Boulevard: On a normal weekday, vehicles should have been stuck in traffic here,” he said in one of his photos. “But now, the silence is deafeningly uncomfortable.”
“You can hear the rustling of leaves, the wind blowing, a motorcycle’s engine roaring from perhaps a kilometer away. This was on a weekday, during a supposedly rush hour. But it seems, time was suspended,” he observed.
While people longed for peace and tranquility in the area, which used to be bustling with busy students and employees, cars, and other commercial activities, Manuel admitted, “this is not the kind…we all imagined.”
In Morayta where dozens of sidewalk vendors usually sell street food and Internet shops crowded with students doing their thesis or playing online games, Manuel said, “Social distancing was an impossibility here.”
“But today, the metal doors are slid down and the sidewalk is lifeless. The pandemic emptied it.”
