67 ECQ violators made to clean SRP, riverbanks on July 7

ECQ violators in Cebu City were made to clean the coastal area of the South Road Properties (SRP) on Tuesday, July 7, 2020. | Photo courtesy of PROBE team

CEBU CITY, Philippines –The Cebu City government has thought of a new punishment for enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) violators – make them clean the city’s coastal areas, riverbanks, and streets.

A total of 67 violators were made to collect garbage from the shorelines of the South Road Properties (SRP) and the nearby riverbanks on Tuesday, July 7.

Racquel Arce, head of the city’s Prevention, Restoration, Order, Beautification, and Enhancement (PROBE) team, said that arrested individuals were divided into three groups and were assigned to different cleanup schedules.  The first batch consisted of 39 individuals while the second batch had 20.  The last batch consisted of eight violators.

Their community service will run from five to 10 hours depending on the gravity of their offense, Arce said.

The 67 violators were rounded up on Monday, July 6, for different ECQ violations.  Most of them were arrested for going out of their homes without a valid reason and for their failure to comply with the assigned schedule for the use of their quarantine passes.

Arce told CDN Digital that they decide to shift to community service after the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) said that making ECQ violators do hours of physical exercise was “inhumane.”

PROBE personnel used to make violators stay at the Plaza Independencia grounds while they do physical exercises.

“So syempre, mocomply ta sa CHR. Niapprove sad sila aning community service kay makatabang siya sa environment,” she said.

(Of course, we will have to comply with the CHR directive. They also approved of our community service proposal because this will help the environment.)

Arce said she has also observed that making ECQ violators render community service was a more effective punishment than making them do physical exercises.

“Ako pagtan-aw mas epektibo gyod ni kaysa sa physical exercise kay kapoy og hago ang pagpanglimpyo. Ako sila gipangutana if mobalik pa ba sila, ingon sila nga dili na,” she added.

(I have observed that this is a more effective punishment in comparison to doing physical exercises because they are made to do hard labor.  I asked some of them if they still intend to repeat their offense and they said no.)

Arce said that making ECQ violators do community teaches them discipline while they are also able to help in ensuring the city’s cleanliness.

Still, Arce is asking Cebu City barangays to strengthen their information dissemination to especially remind their residents of the designated schedule for the use of their quarantine passes to avoid arrest. / dcb