“If they say, being ‘tambay’ violates local ordinances, then keep it local.”

Amid concerns of alleged rights violations in the government’s latest anti-crime campaign, the support for the drive against loiterers or tambays in the Senate has been snowballing.

Senators JV Ejercito and Panfilo Lacson were in unison in having the matter of dealing with so-called “tambays” in the local level, even at the barangay level.

“I would understand the reason for that order which is the broken windows theory in that we have to make sure that the environment is not conducive for criminals and lawless elements,” Ejercito said.

As a former mayor himself, Ejercito said the barangay and law enforcers knows too well who could be the potential criminals in the area.

But there are past local ordinances with the same objectives that could be duplicated or revived especially in the absence of an apparent clear implementing rules and regulations from the Philippine National Police (PNP), Ejercito said.

Ejercito said the PNP could step in if the subjects of similar campaigns in the barangays refuse to heed the ordinance.

Lacson, a former PNP chief, said the arrest of loiterers were based on local ordinances which means that the campaign can be best addressed at the local level.

“If they say, being ‘tambay’ violates local ordinances, then keep it local. The Chief PNP doing all the explaining and justifying instead of the concerned local chiefs of police only adds up to the suspicion and criticisms,” Lacson, who headed the PNP from 1999 to 2001, said.

He added it would be better to leave it to local chiefs of police who can implement local ordinances under the provisions of the PNP Law.

Lacson cited the highly successful anti-criminality experience of Davao City under then Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, which gained widespread and almost unanimous public support from local residents.