By Robina Asido

President Rodrigo Duterte ordered the deployment of policemen in every hotel used as isolation facilities to address the absentee quarantine issue.

"That’s an issue to be addressed by the government and I think (DILG) Secretary (Eduardo) Año has done it already. So it will be the police. Two policemen assigned to hotels that are quarantined and they also have to keep their, mindful of their duty to advise the person," Duterte said during his first Talk to the People for the year Tuesday night.

He explained that police have the power to arrest anyone who insists on skipping the mandatory quarantine requirements.

Duterte issued his directive after a Filipina who skipped her quarantine after her arrival from the United States was tested positive for COVID-19.

Just last Monday, DILG Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya confirmed that the Filipina tagged as "Poblacio Girl" created a super spreader event after seven out of the 15 of her close contacts and one out of the 19 secondary contacts were tested positive for Covid-19.

Duterte expressed his belief that hotels should not be burdened to enforce quarantine protocols as it is the job of the government.

"It would not be legally correct to go after the hotel owners or the managers there or whoever is attending to the needs of the people that are inside the hotel because of quarantine reasons," he said.

"We cannot transfer the power now of even stopping if they would want to, if they would insist to go out, the hotel owners or whoever is working there cannot be tasked of, or placing the burden of enforcing the rules about quarantine because only the government can enforce it," he added.

Ano said he discussed the matter with the Philippine National Police (PNP) chief and the police is now preparing a plan of action. DMS