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DOJ junks quarantine breach complaint against Sen. Koko Pimentel

By PhilSTAR L!fe Published Jan 21, 2021 1:02 am Updated Jan 21, 2021 2:21 am

Senator Koko Pimentel is once again earning the ire of netizens—this time with the Department of Justice. The DOJ dismissed today the complaint against Pimentel over his quarantine breach in March, when he went to a hospital on March 24, 2020 even if he was already exhibiting COVID-19 symptoms.

The DOJ junked the complaint for lack of probable cause, saying it was “fatally defective” as the complainant, lawyer Rico Quicho, was not the proper party to file the complaint. “News reports, being hearsay evidence, cannot be relied upon as proof,” the DOJ said.

Filed in April, the complaint was for violation of Republic Act 11332 or the Mandatory Reporting of Notifiable Diseases and Health Events of Public Health Concern Act, and 3 Department of Health (DOH).

Pimentel went to Makati Medical Center in March with his pregnant wife four days after he underwent a COVID test and did not inform the hospital of his test or his symptoms.

In his statement reacting to the DOJ decision, lawyer Quicho said, “When policies and pronouncements change arbitrarily contingent on who receives the shorter end of the stick, there are no policies or principles to speak of. These policies then become tools of oppression against those disfavored by people in power.

“Chief executors of the ECQ, including the DOJ, were firm and clear in their early pronouncements that ‘there will be no more warning for ECQ violators—instead arrest and inquest procedures will be applied to cases of violation.’”

Quicho said the DOJ’s dismissal of the complaint “places into serious doubt the government’s commitment to exact accountability from those who willfully or negligently put the lives of our frontliners in danger. This promotes the wrong message that ordinary people must suffer the full extent of the law and some, while those in power get a free pass.

“We are sadly reminded of a fish vendor in Quezon City who was violently arrested for failure to comply with government regulations. He was beaten with a stick, dragged and humiliated in public…”

Quicho asked the question on everyone’s mind: “Is there a different set of rules for Mr. Koko Pimentel, the powerful and the privileged, and a different set for the fish vendor, the weak, the forgotten and the ‘unimportant’?”

He ends his statement with “Indeed, the unearned privilege of Senator Koko Pimentel and his kind has its perks. Enjoy it while it lasts, Mr. VIP.”

In March, all cities in Metro Manila were placed under the very strict enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) with people locked down in their houses 24/7, and needing a barangay clearance to go out even for groceries and other supplies.

The Makati Medical Center (MMC) issued a strongly worded rebuke of Pimentel for entering the hospital and violating his home quarantine on the same night he confirmed his diagnosis for COVID-19.

MMC medical director Saturnino Javier criticized Pimentel for bringing his wife to the hospital despite experiencing symptoms since March 10 and exposing health workers to possible infection.

“By being in MMC, Senator Pimentel violated his home quarantine protocol, entered the premises of the MMC-DR, thus unduly exposed healthcare workers to possible infection. As a result, a number of our nurses and doctors may need to be quarantined which will further deplete the dwindling workforce of the hospital," the letter said.

In March, the public called on Pimentel to resign from the Senate and pointed out the double standard of authorities. During the ECQ people in low-income neighborhoods were being arrested and some were beat up by the police for violating their home quarantines or for not wearing a mask.

In April, a Quezon City policeman shot and killed a “mentally challenged” person for violating quarantine.

Reaction to the dismissal of the complaint against Pimentel range from ”bullshit” to ”double standard,” and much more strongly worded terms.