Malacañang on Thursday maintained that the Duterte administration is not criminalizing vagrancy and merely implementing the laws and ordinances and as form of more police visibility intended to act as deterrent towards the commission of crime.
Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque also reiterated that the government’s drive against loiterers or “anti-tambay” is meant to prevent crimes from happening.
He said the Palace welcomes any probe by Congress or the Supreme Court on the government’s “anti-tambay” campaign whether it committed any abuses.
“We are not criminalizing vagrancy. We are implementing the laws and ordinances. Police visibility is intended to act as deterrent towards the commission of crimes,” he said.
Under Article 202 of the Revised Penal Code, loitering is a crime but this was overturned by former President Benigno Aquino III when he signed a law in 2012 decriminalizing vagrancy which has been used to justify arbitrary arrests.
The President, a lawyer and former Davao prosecutor, acknowledged in one of his speeches that loitering is not a crime, but ordered police to round up tambays or night idlers on the streets.
Roque, in defending the President, said that Duterte wanted local officials to implement ordinances against loiterers, to lessen the possibility of the commission of crime.
Duterte said loiterers or “tambays” pose “potential trouble for the public.”
“To conduct a probe is the mandate of both Houses of the Congress. Especially if they will create a law that would help the President with the kind of implementation he wants,” Roque said.
The President even dared the critics of his anti-tambay directive to question its legality at the Supreme Court and should the SC turns down his order, he will just let everyone out in the streets.