Filipino Dies After Police Made Him Do 300 Squats As Punishment For Going Out To Buy Water After 6pm

A man in the Philippines has died after being forced to do 300 squats for breaching coronavirus-induced curfews, making him the latest victim of the country's often brutal approach to enforcing restrictions.

On April 1, Darren Manaog Peñaredondo, 28, left his home in General Trias, a city in Cavite province, which is under lockdown due to rising COVID-19 cases, to buy water, his family said.

But he was stopped by police and told to do "pumping exercises" 100 times, according to the report. Police made him repeat the exercises, meaning he ultimately did about 300 repetitions.

"He started to convulse on Saturday, but we were able to revive him at home. Then his body failed so we revived him again, but he was already comatose," 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 — it has recorded more than 819,000 infections and 14,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University. Last month, cases in the country rose sharply, prompting authorities to order more than 25 million people into lockdown — including those in Cavite province.

The Department of the Interior and Local Government and the mayor of General Trias city have ordered an investigation into Peñaredondo's death, according to the report.

"All police officers who will be proven to have violated the law will be prosecuted and meted with appropriate (administrative) and criminal penalties," the department's undersecretary Jonathan Malaya said.

Peñaredondo's death follows a string 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 inside a dog cage for violating quarantine. They also reportedly forced people to sit in the midday sun as punishment for breaching a curfew.

Jose Manuel Diokno, a lawyer and founder of Free Legal Assistance Group (FLAG), said it was not legal to lock people up in cages or make people squat 300 times. "The only penalties that can be imposed by law enforcers for any kind of violations are those found in local law and national law, and we don't have any laws that allow people to be put in dog cages or be made to exercise for long periods of time," he said.

The Philippines has taken a tough approach to contain coronavirus.

President Rodrigo Duterte has applied his traditional strongman tactics, saying in April last year that police would shoot dead 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 they fight you and your lives are endangered, shoot them dead," Duterte said during a speech.

Huge numbers of people have been detained for breaching restrictions in the past 12 months. Between March and August last year, nearly 290,000 people were warned, fined, or charged for violating quarantine rules. Since Duterte put the main Philippine island of Luzon in lockdown on March 16 this year, hundreds of people had been arrested in Manila, HRW said in March.

 

SOURCE SAUDIGAZETTE

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