THERE has to be a law passed to confine penalties on corporate violators only to those who are found to have been involved in the act, and those who have ownership and managerial responsibilities over decisions which have bearing on the violations. This, however, is not to prevent the state from suspending the operations when its continuation would further render damage to public interest, but with the caveat that the rights of the innocent should also be protected.

The reason I say this emanates from my serious discomfort, and fundamental disagreement, with the manner in which Berjaya Hotel was summarily ordered closed by the Makati city government simply because some of its personnel had enabled someone to violate the quarantine rules issued by the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID). This happened without due regard to the affected hotel personnel many of whom were probably clueless about the violation or had nothing to do with it. These are people with families, and losing their source of livelihood due to the closure of their place of employment not because of loss of clients, but because of a state action that punished without due process, is patently unjust.