The number of curfew violators in the country since the implementation of enhanced community quarantine in Luzon almost two weeks ago has soared to over 42,000 as the Department of Justice activated an electronic inquest to deal with them, the Philippine National Police said.

Police Lieutenant General Guillermo Lorenzo Eleazar, commander of the Joint Task Force Coronavirus Shield and deputy chief of PNP for Operations, said that there were a total of 42,826 apprehended curfew violators in the first 11 days of the ECQ, or from March 17 to 27. Of the total violators, 12,094 came from Metro Manila.

President Rodrigo Duterte has placed the entire Luzon, including Metro Manila, under the ECQ, while other local government units in Visayas and Mindanao have also implemented their own quarantine measures.

Eleazar said the JTF CV Shield, the enforcement arm of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases, will continue to arrest curfew and quarantine violators.

He said the violators would undergo inquest using the e-inquest project of the Department of Justice.

The virtual inquest proceedings will be conducted using any online platform for video calls and conferences and all available electronic communications, the police officer said quoting the DOJ.

Eleazar said the DOJ has already issued general rules on procedures for the conduct of e-inquest to the government prosecutors across the country.

In the absence of internet connections or online facilities in the police stations, he said the regular direct filing will be done by the police investigators.

But with the growing number of violators, which could not be accommodated in various detention centers, Eleazar said they would be allowed to go home after booking them.

The violators' names and circumstances of arrest, however, would be documented and charges would still be pursued against them after the ECQ is lifted and the situation normalizes, he said.

If the curfew violators will be released over a decision that the regular filing of the case will be done after the ECQ, curfew violators must be held for a maximum of 12 hours while being admonished so as to deter them from repeating the offense, Eleazar added. Ella Dionisio/DMS