Filipinos breaking Covid-19 rules risk beatings, humiliation – unless they’re rich or well-connected
- Wealthy and political elites escape punishment for flouting antivirus restrictions, as the poorest are subject to ‘cruel’, ‘degrading’ penalties
- While such inequality has long been rife in the Philippines’ ‘semi-feudal society’, a ‘call-out culture’ is beginning to emerge, one analyst said
For those Filipinos who aren’t rich and powerful, not wearing a face mask is enough to warrant a police beating so severe that the violator is unable to work for days, as local media reported happened to a market porter in Cebu City on Monday. The porter, who said he was repeatedly hit around the thighs with a paddle, told reporters he had seen as many as 10 other people subjected to similar beatings that day.
Three days before, the police chief of Silay City in Negros Occidental province ordered 39 people caught not wearing masks to march down a road single file with their arms out in front of them to “maintain proper social distancing” – a parade seemingly designed to make the participants look like caricatures of zombies, and which the country’s human rights commission called “cruel” and “degrading”. At the end of their forced march was a seminar on the dangers of Covid-19, featuring an empty coffin as a prop.
Such heavy-handed tactics were nowhere to be seen, however, at a January 17 birthday party attended by Benjamin Magalong, mayor of Baguio City and the Philippines’ supposed contact-tracing “tsar”.
At first, Magalong claimed ignorance of the illegal gathering – a sumptuous gala filled with celebrities that featured cultural dances and the guest of honour riding a horse – until a YouTube video emerged showing the former general and his wife at the event.
When faced with the footage, which showed few attendees at the crowded party wearing masks or practising social distancing, the mayor said everyone who attended would be fined 1,500 pesos (US$31) and announced his own “irrevocable” resignation from the country’s Covid-19 task force.
Days later, Magalong said he wasn’t resigning after all and denied using the word “irrevocable” – despite doing so several times in televised interviews – before attacking his “enemies” for “unleashing social media warriors” to destroy his reputation. He remains in post, and neither he nor any of the other party guests were forced to attend a seminar or had their legs beaten with paddles.
Randy David, professor emeritus of sociology at the University of the Philippines, said Filipinos had grown used to such unequal treatment and elitism in their “semi-feudal society” – though with the rise of the internet, he said a “call-out culture” was beginning to emerge, especially among young people.
“They recognise the hierarchies, but they also feel resentful that these hierarchies and differential treatment occur,” David told This Week In Asia.
The Philippines has been under varying levels of coronavirus lockdown – or “community quarantine” as the government calls it – since March 16 last year. Although some of the strictest rules have since been relaxed, residents of Metro Manila and adjacent provinces who are older than 65 or younger than 16 are still forbidden from leaving their houses, while the wearing of masks and face shields is mandatory for everyone who is allowed out.
Shopping centres, hotels, restaurants and public transport have resumed operations – albeit at a reduced capacity – but across the capital region checkpoints abound, manned by police officers in combat fatigues carrying assault rifles who check for permits to travel.
As of November, more than 517,000 people had been stopped over quarantine violations, according to the Philippine National Police’s statistics, about 130,000 of whom went on to be charged with an offence.
Violence like that reported in Cebu City earlier this month is not uncommon, with reports of police beating up a fish seller in Quezon City and humiliating quarantine violators elsewhere by forcing them into cages made for dogs. At least two people have been fatally shot by police enforcing coronavirus restrictions and one officer has been accused of raping a woman.
David, the sociology professor, said such threats were unnecessary as “Filipinos are very law-abiding. It’s not like other countries where they don’t want to wear masks.”
“The people who go out really need to go out, whether to earn a living or go to places of work,” he said. “I think authorities should match such compliance with a degree of tolerance.”
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Many ordinary citizens have been confused by the baffling array of regulations that are inconsistently implemented and can seemingly change at a moment’s notice, according to David.
“You don’t know when the rules have been lifted or amended,” he said, adding that some law enforcers “are super strict [while] some have a broader understanding of the problems that people encounter, so they are more tolerant”.
Where authorities are consistent is in letting the rich and powerful off the hook. A complaint against Senator Aquilino Pimentel III – who last March breached infection and containment protocols by accompanying his wife to hospital while unknowingly infected with Covid-19, endangering patients and staff – was dismissed last month by the justice department for “lack of probable cause”. Pimentel described the decision as “unassailable and correct”.
Even more memorable was the case of police general Debold Sinas, who in May was pictured at his own birthday party in violation of quarantine rules against mass gatherings. Instead of being penalised, Sinas was subsequently awarded a promotion by Duterte and is now commander of the Philippine National Police.
Although such inequality has a long history in the Philippines, the internet and social media has empowered young Filipinos, in particular, to call out elitism when they see it, according to David.
“The moment you post something like a souvenir photo of an event and people are not wearing masks, chances are that photo is going to land somewhere and people will call you out,” he said, adding that this can force members of “upper income groups and their connections” to confess to their quarantine violations.
