President Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday warned all mayors and barangay officials that they will be held responsible if COVID-19 cases in their areas increase.

In his weekly ‘Talk to the People’, Duterte directed the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) to punish local government officials for “dereliction of duty” if super spreader events happen in their localities and municipalities.

“I will hold responsible and I will direct the secretary of the Local Government (Eduardo Ano) to hold the mayors and barangay captains responsible for these kinds of events happening in their places. It is a violation of the law and if you do not enforce the law, there is a dereliction of duty which is punishable under the Revised Penal Code,” Duterte said.

“So the DILG can proceed against you for not doing your duty as mayor or as a barangay captain, but not so much about the mayor,” he added.

Duterte said under the police power of the state, mayors and barangay officials are responsible for enforcing the law.

He said DILG has the power to go after local government officials administratively and criminally.

“If there are fiestas and dances (in your area), the DILG will summon the mayor and barangay captain), and then he will proceed to enforce the law. Since he is my alter ego, it’s a civilian department, and he can exercise that power, maybe call the attention of the mayor and the barangay captain and to give them enough time to answer administratively and criminally why you should not go to prison for not enforcing the law,” he added.

Duterte said exercising police power is necessary “to protect other people from not getting sick.”

“There is a national emergency, a national health emergency. With that comes also the power of the state to control whatever there is to control whether it’s a pandemic, epidemic or whatever medical, police power can be exercised to control crime, to promote public interest, to promote public health,” he said.

Based on his observation, Duterte said whenever he sees people violating the health protocol, he knows there will be another spike of COVID-19 cases the next day.

Duterte reiterated that the pandemic will only end if all Filipinos are vaccinated. Ella Dionisio/DMS