The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) on Tuesday blasted the head of the Quezon City Task Force Disiplina for supposedly making a “shoot to kill” threat against those violators of quarantine protocols in the city.
In a statement, DILG Spokesperson and Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya said the remark allegedly made by Rannie Ludovica was “improper and illegal” as he advised him to refrain from issuing similar statements in the future.
“While we strongly believe that discipline is one of the preventive measures to stop the transmission of the coronavirus, this must be enforced within the bounds of the law and the DILG will not tolerate any possible abuse of authority on the part of law enforcement agencies or enforcement units of local government units,” Malaya said.
“The penalties to be imposed by local government units against quarantine violators must be within the bounds of their respective ordinances,” he added.
The DILG official also said that the Quezon City government has disowned the alleged FB post of Ludovica, saying that “it should not be taken literally, if true, and that it was merely an expression of frustration over the growing number of violations in Quezon City.
“Nonetheless, LGU department heads must be circumspect in their social media posts since this may be mistaken by their constituents as official LGU policy,” Malaya said.
In a separate statement posted on his social media account, Ludovica said his post was personal and that the city government has no shoot to kill policy against quarantine violators.
“Nagmula ang nasabing personal na Facebook post ng inyong lingkod sa aking pagkadismaya sa pagbalik natin mula sa GCQ to MECQ. Patuloy na tumataas ang bilang ng COVID-19 sa lungsod at buong bansa dahil sa kawalan ng disiplina ng karamihan sa ating mga mamamayan at paglabag nila sa batas,” he said.
He also called on the public to strictly follow health protocols to help curb the transmission of the virus.