Mayor, guv raise legal questions on ‘COVID visits’

By Joseph B.A. Marzan

 

Both Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas and Iloilo Governor Arthur Defensor Jr. questioned the Philippine National Police’s (PNP) planned house-to-house inspection of asymptomatic patients of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

On Tuesday, Interior Secretary Eduardo Año said the PNP will be going from house to house to search for asymptomatic COVID-19 patients who are under home quarantine and transfer them to government-managed quarantine facilities.

Año, however, clarified on Wednesday that the searches will be led by local health officials.

 

 

WARRANTS NEEDED

In an interview with Bombo Radyo Iloilo on Friday, Treñas maintained that the said operations violate the Bill of Rights under the 1987 Constitution.

“For me, that is against the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, because for that, you would need a search warrant and an arrest warrant. We cannot just take an asymptomatic patient. We have to make sure that everything will be according to the law. It is important for us that everything will be in place,” the mayor said.

The mayor, however, said that home-based quarantine would not be viable for confirmed COVID-19 patients.

“There are places which are not suitable for home quarantine. That is why we put in place that patients need to be in quarantine facilities. There are homes which do not have the capability, and we cannot allow home quarantine,” he said.

He highlighted the importance of testing, saying that asymptomatic patients are not easy to identify.

“Asymptomatic patients, we cannot identify them, because precisely, they are ‘asymptomatic’ and the only way we can know is to have them tested. That is why, for me, testing is important and we need more testing capacity. Otherwise, if we have a low testing capacity, it would slow down,” he said.

 

RIGHT TO DENY

In a press conference on Thursday, Defensor said that searching houses for COVID-19 patients may be within the bounds of the law.

“I don’t think that the constitutional angle is the main consideration there. The only aim of that would be to inspect whether or not there are positive COVID-19 cases in the house. They just want to help bring the patients to a COVID-19 facility,” the governor said.

The governor also said, however, that people have the right to deny entry without a search warrant.

“The Bill of Rights is meant to protect the ordinary person from the power and the machinery of the government, exercised by whom, the government officials, especially the law enforcers because that is very powerful. No agent of the government can enter your house without a search warrant issued by a court, that is the rule,” he said.

He clarified however, that officials, police not included, may enter the house for health and sanitation purposes.

“But in other cases, especially in other jurisdictions, you don’t need a search warrant if you are exercising other powers like, inspection for health purposes. In this case, it is the police, and the police, in their mandate, health purposes are not included, that is why the DILG said that they will only accompany our health functionaries,” he said.

Defensor said that he feels “okay” with the police assisting local health officials, but also said he will wait for guidelines from national government authorities so he may be further clarified.