On April 1, Darren Manaog Peñaredondo (28) left his home in General Trias, a town in Cavite province, to be locked up due to the increasing Covid-19 cases, to buy water, his family told CNN. Philippines, CNN, said.
However, according to the report, he was stopped by the police and told to do ‘pumping exercises’. Police had him repeat the exercise, meaning he eventually did about 300 repetitions.
“He started having convulsions on Saturday, but we were able to revive him at home. Then his body failed, so we brought him back to life, but he was already in a bad condition,” his family said according to the report. Peñaredondo died at 10 p.m., the family said.
The Philippines has one of the most reported Covid-19 cases in any country in Asia – according to Johns Hopkins University, more than 819,000 infections and 14,000 deaths have been recorded. Last month, affairs in the country increased sharply, leading the authorities to order more than 25 million people to be locked up – including those in Cavite province.
According to the report, the Department of Home Affairs and Local Government and the Mayor of General Trias city have ordered an investigation into the death of Peñaredondo.
“All police officers will be proven to have violated the law, will be prosecuted and will be punished with appropriate (administrative) and criminal penalties,” the department’s deputy secretary Jonathan Malaya said in a text message to CNN Philippines.
Peñaredondo’s death follows a series of incidents involving brutal policing techniques.
In a statement last month, the non-profit organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) pointed to reports that officials had locked five youths in a dog kennel for violating the quarantine. They also allegedly forced people to sit in the afternoon sun as punishment for breaking an evening clock.
Jose Manuel Diokno, a lawyer and founder of Free Legal Assistance Group (FLAG), said it was not legal to lock people in cages or make people squat 300 times. ‘The only fines that can be imposed by law enforcers for any kind of transgression are those that occur in local and national law, and we have no laws that make it possible to place people in dog kennels or to leave them for long. do not practice periods, ”he said.
A Hard Approach to Covid Restrictions
The Philippines has taken a difficult approach to containing coronavirus.
President Rodrigo Duterte applied his traditional strongman tactics and said in April last year that the police would kill anyone who violated the virus restrictions. “I will not hesitate. My instructions are to the police, the army and the barangays: if they become improper and they fight against you and your lives are endangered, they will shoot dead,” Duterte said during a speech.
Large numbers of people have been detained for violating restrictions the last 12 months. Between March and August last year, nearly 290,000 people were warned, fined or charged for violating quarantine rules, 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.
Philippine authorities argue that the difficult approach is needed to control the country’s outbreak. But Carlos Conde, a senior researcher at HRW, who is based in the Philippines, claims that striking cases show that the measures did not work. Instead, he said the decision to arrest people en masse probably saw people “like sardines” packed into crowded prisons, with no social distance.
Closure orders also hurt people who have to leave their homes to allow work, saying the measures are ‘very poor’.
In its annual report released this week, Amnesty International criticized the Philippines’ approach, pointing out that “measures taken by the government to curb the spread of Covid-19 have led to numerous human rights abuses.”
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 CNN Philippines report. CNN reached out to the official Philippine intelligence agency for comment.
Decline in freedoms
Brutal policing methods have been a problem in the Philippines for many years. Since Duterte came to power in 2016, thousands have died in the ‘war on drugs’ after the president ordered police to kill anyone they believe was involved in the drug trade.
But activists say the pandemic has further weakened freedoms and human rights.
According to Conde, the main problem is the government treats Covid-19 as a public safety issue – not a healthcare issue. The excessive roles given to the army and police have only increased the incidence of aggressive policing tactics.
“I think the police, the army and the local government, they were encouraged to commit even more human rights violations during the pandemic,” he said.
Diokno, the lawyer, said the authorities had ‘just led a clue from them’, referring to Duterte.
There are consequences outside of those arrested for violating the quarantine. 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 been violated “very clearly” due to the pandemic. “Apart from the lives lost, the first victims of the pandemic were democratic rights and freedoms,” he said.
