{"id":255398,"date":"2020-05-19T21:40:10","date_gmt":"2020-05-20T01:40:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=255398"},"modified":"2020-05-19T21:40:10","modified_gmt":"2020-05-20T01:40:10","slug":"duterte-wont-fire-sinas-over-birthday-bash-amid-quarantine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/05\/19\/duterte-wont-fire-sinas-over-birthday-bash-amid-quarantine\/","title":{"rendered":"Duterte won’t fire Sinas over birthday bash amid quarantine"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Sinas and 18 other police officers are facing a criminal complaint for alleged violation of City Ordinance 12, series of 2020, which imposes mandatory wearing of face masks and physical distancing, and Republic Act 11332 or the Mandatory Reporting of Notifiable Diseases and Health Events of Public Health Concern Act. (File photo<\/a>: PIO NCRPO\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 President Rodrigo Duterte will not fire or transfer National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) Chief, Maj. Gen. Debold Sinas, over his birthday celebration that violated quarantine protocols last May 8, saying he is needed in his post.<\/p>\n

In a taped public address aired late Tuesday night, Duterte said he prevented Sinas from getting fired or transferred because he believed he was a \u201cgood and honest\u201d officer.<\/p>\n

\u201cAko ‘yung ayaw na malipat siya<\/em>\u00a0(I was the one who didn\u2019t want him transferred). He is a good officer, he\u2019s an honest one and\u00a0‘di niya kasalanan na may mangharana sa kanya sa<\/em>\u00a0birthday\u00a0niya<\/em>\u00a0(it was not his fault he was serenaded on his birthday),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The President explained that he studied the \u201cmerits\u201d and \u201cdemerits\u201d of Sinas\u2019 case and decided not to dismiss him.<\/p>\n

\u201cMas kailangan ko ‘yung tao dito sa trabaho niya. Marami \u2018yan sila<\/em>\u00a0(I need him more in his job. There are a lot of them). They\u2019re all competent but you know seniority. It is his time to be there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Amid criticism that Sinas and his guests were not wearing face masks during the party, Duterte said it was natural to remove them because they were eating.<\/p>\n

“\u2018Yun naman nagsabing nakakita hindi siya naka<\/em>-mask,\u00a0e siyempre may mga meryenda \u2018yan, may pagkain, alang-alang naman kainin nila pati ‘yung<\/em>\u00a0mask.\u00a0Di tanggalin talaga nila<\/em>\u00a0(Those saying they did not see him wearing a mask, of course, because they were having snacks. Of course they would remove them),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Duterte said Sinas will stay in his post until further orders.<\/p>\n

\u201cSabihin mo<\/em>\u00a0the \u2018law is the law\u2019. Well,\u00a0akin na \u2018yun<\/em>\u00a0(You say the law is law but that\u2019s on me). It\u2019s my responsibility. But I will not order his transfer. He stays there until further orders,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Duterte said he believed that Sinas would have opposed the gathering if he knew beforehand about the \u201cma\u00f1anita\u201d or the traditional birthday welcome by his colleagues.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do not believe in just firing him because\u00a0kinantahan siya ng<\/em>\u00a0happy birthday (they sang him a birthday song). I\u2019m sure\u00a0na kung alam ni<\/em>\u00a0Sinas\u00a0\u2018yan hindi siya pumayag<\/em>\u00a0(if he knew about it, he would have rejected it),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Sinas and 18 other police officers are facing a criminal complaint for alleged violation of City Ordinance 12, series of 2020, which imposes mandatory wearing of face masks and physical distancing, and Republic Act 11332 or the Mandatory Reporting of Notifiable Diseases and Health Events of Public Health Concern Act.<\/p>\n

He came under fire after photos of his birthday bash at Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City went viral on social media last May 8.<\/p>\n

In the photos released by the NCRPO public information office, which have now been deleted, it can be noticed that the police officials failed to observe safe physical distancing.<\/p>\n

Interior Secretary Eduardo A\u00f1o said the gathering in itself was “uncalled for\u201d and that Sinas should have practiced “delicadeza”.<\/p>\n

Sinas has apologized but insisted that there was \u201cnothing wrong\u201d with the celebration since quarantine protocols were observed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 President Rodrigo Duterte will not fire or transfer National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) Chief, Maj. Gen. Debold Sinas, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":240511,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-255398","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255398","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=255398"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255398\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":255400,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255398\/revisions\/255400"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/240511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}