On April 1, Darren Manaog Peñaredondo, 28, left his home in General Trias, a town in Cavite province that has been shut down due to increasing Covid-19 cases, to buy water, his family said, according to CNN subsidiary CNN. Philippines.
But according to the report, he was stopped by police and told to do “pumping exercises” 100 times. The police made him repeat the exercises, which means he ended up doing about 300 reps.
“He started having convulsions on Saturday, but we were able to revive him at home. Then his body failed, so we revived him, but he was already in a coma,” his family said, according to the report. Peñaredondo died at 10 p.m., the family said.
The Philippines has one of the highest reported Covid-19 caseloads of any country in Asia – more than 819,000 infections and 14,000 deaths have occurred, according to Johns Hopkins University. Last month, cases in the country soared, prompting authorities to imprison more than 25 million people, including those in Cavite province.
According to the report, the Ministry of the Interior and Local Government and the mayor of the city of General Trias have ordered an investigation into Peñaredondo’s death.
“All police officers who will be proven to have violated the law will be prosecuted and face appropriate (administrative) and criminal penalties,” the department’s undersecretary, Jonathan Malaya, said in a text message to CNN Philippines.
Peñaredondo’s death follows a series of incidents involving brutal police techniques.
In a statement last month, the nonprofit Human Rights Watch (HRW) pointed to reports that officials had locked five youths in a dog cage for violating quarantine. They also allegedly forced people to sit in the midday sun as punishment for breaking a curfew.
Jose Manuel Diokno, a lawyer and founder of Free Legal Assistance Group (FLAG), said it is not legal to lock people in cages 300 times or to have people squat 300 times. “The only penalties that can be imposed by law enforcement officers for any kind of violation are those listed in local and state law, and we do not have any laws that allow people to be put in dog cages or detained for long periods of time. exercise periods, ”he said.
A tough approach to Covid restrictions
The Philippines has taken a tough approach to contain the corona virus.
President Rodrigo Duterte has used his traditional strongman tactic, saying in April last year that the police would shoot anyone who violated virus restrictions. “I will not hesitate. My orders are to the police, the military and the barangays: if they become unruly and fight you and your life is in danger, shoot them,” Duterte said in a speech.
Large numbers of people have been detained for violating restrictionsin the past 12 months. Between March and August last year, nearly 290,000 people were warned, fined or charged for violating quarantine regulations, CNN Philippines reported.Since Duterte shut down the main Philippine island of Luzon on March 16 this year, hundreds of people have been arrested in Manila, HRW said in March.
The Philippine authorities argue that the crackdown is needed to contain the country’s outbreak. But Carlos Conde, a senior researcher at HRW based in the Philippines, says the rising cases show that the measures have not worked. Instead, he said the decision to mass arrest people likely put people “like sardines” into overcrowded prisons, without shaking off social distance.
Lockdown orders had also damaged people who had to leave their homes to work, he said, adding that the measures were “very anti-poor.”
In its annual report published this week, Amnesty International criticized the Philippines’ approach, noting that “measures taken by the government to stop the spread of Covid-19 led to numerous human rights violations”.
Last month, Duterte defended the use of former military officers in the fight against Covid-19, saying, “You don’t have to be a doctor here,” according to a report from CNN Philippines. CNN has reached out to the official Philippine Information Bureau for comment.
Decline of freedoms
Brutal police methods have been a problem in the Philippines for years. Since Duterte took power in 2016, thousands of people have died in the “war on drugs” after the president ordered police to kill anyone they believed to be involved in the drug trade.
But activists say the pandemic has further eroded freedoms and human rights.
According to Conde the main problemisthe government is treating Covid-19 as a matter of public safety – not a health concern. The outrageous roles given to the military and police had only increased the prevalence of aggressive police tactics, he said.
“I think the police, the military and the local government have been encouraged to commit even more human rights violations during the pandemic,” he said.
Diokno, the lawyer, said the authorities “had just received a signal from their leader,” referring to Duterte.
There are more consequences than those arrested for quarantine violations. According to HRW, there was a 50% increase in the number of people killed in the “war on drugs” from April to July 2020 compared to the previous four-month period.
Diokno said human rights had “very clearly” deteriorated by the pandemic. “Aside from the lives lost, the first victims of the pandemic were democratic rights and freedoms,” he said.
