The Davao City Police Office (DCPO) has started filing charges against persons who received citation tickets for not wearing face masks but failed to pay the corresponding fines.
Since the Davao City Ordinance No. 0307-20 or the Face Mask Ordinance was implemented on January 1, 2022, DCPO has they caught 10,147 individuals. Of this figure, only 2,861 managed to pay the penalties.
“If they cannot pay within five days, we will commence with the filing of cases against them,” DCPO director, Colonel Alberto Lupaz, warned Friday.
Lupaz said they have so far processed the cases against 2,414 individuals who violated the face mask mandate.
Based on the ordinance, Dabawenyos caught not wearing a face mask in a public place are fined PHP500 for the first offense, PHP2,000 for the second offense, and PHP5,000 or one-month imprisonment for the third offense.
Davao City along with 36 other areas in the country were placed under Alert Level 1 on March 2022.
Under Alert Level 1, the IATF said there are no restrictions in terms of indoor and outdoor capacities; therefore, removing social distancing as one of the protocols. Wearing of face shields was also not mandatory under the Alert Level 1.
“We only have one protocol now which is the wearing of face masks. We are strictly implementing this because we do not want people to relax and be complacent,” Lupaz pointed out.
He also urged those who are yet to get vaccinated to get their doses so the city can keep its Alert Level 1 status.
Meanwhile, the city government said it has started administering second booster shots on Wednesday.
Covid-19 Task Force Vaccination said they will prioritize the immunocompromised individuals (18 years old and above).
The administration of the second booster is based on guidelines issued by the National Vaccine Operation Center (NVOC) released on April 22.
Source: Philippines News Agency