The Department of Justice has junked a complaint against Senator Koko Pimentel over his supposed quarantine breach at the start of COVID-19 lockdowns in March last year.
The case against Pimentel over supposed violation of the Mandatory Reporting of Notifiable Diseases and Health Events of Public Health Concern Act was dismissed for lack of probable cause.
Lawyer Rico Quicho, who filed the complaint, had said Pimentel “put the lives and health of frontliners and even ordinary citizens at grave risk.”
Pimentel was chastised by the Makati Medical Center last year for accompanying his then-pregnant wife to the hospital while he was still waiting for his COVID-19 test results.
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Protocol dictates that the senator should have been in quarantine.
He said he was informed that he tested positive for the disease while he was at the hospital and left immediately.
At the time, Pimentel said the complaint filed against him was “fatally defective” since it was allegedly based on news reports, and should be considered hearsay.
The senator drew public ire over the incident as most Filipinos were locked in their homes to prevent the spread of the disease.
