"This plan has provoked concern, anger and even ridicule."
People crowding into malls to do Christmas shopping might forget about keeping a safe distance from each other despite the COVID-19 pandemic, but we hardly believe they need a whack from a rattan cane to be reminded.
Yet this seems to be the best idea the Philippine National Police (PNP) has to make sure people comply with health protocols during the holiday season.
At a press briefing on Dec. 4, PNP Deputy Chief for Operations and Joint Task Force COVID Shield Commander Lt. Gen. Cesar Binag said policemen on “social distancing patrol” have been ordered by PNP chief Debold Sinas to use rattan sticks or “yantok” to hit “hardheaded people” who violate physical distancing measures.
“We have what we call ‘social distancing patrol’ and because they have been ordered by our PNP chief General Sinas, they will carry one-meter rattan sticks to stop violators, as a measuring device, and it would be used to hit hardheaded individuals,” Palabay said.
Predictably, this plan has provoked concern, anger and even ridicule.
“We wish to caution the government against unnecessary use of force and actions that may lead to humiliation and trauma. Violence, even in its slightest suggestion, is not the best way to address the pandemic,” a spokesperson for the Commission on Human Rights said.
The human rights group Karapatan hit the police for threatening to beat violators of distancing measures.
Employing physical violence in enforcing quarantine protocols is “not only utterly ineffective in curbing the pandemic but ultimately dangerous,” Karapatan said.
“We have said this time and time again: using militarist, punitive, and often violent measures to implement health protocols have only fomented more brutal human rights violations under the lockdown from the torture and violent arrests of alleged quarantine violators, dehumanizing penalties, and even death—and, clearly, these measures have failed in curbing the spread of the pandemic,” the group said.
Fortunately, the Palace is on the same page on this issue.
While rattan sticks could be used to measure the one-meter physical distance requirement, these should not be used to harm anyone, presidential spokesman Harry Roque said.
Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. had a more colorful way of rejecting the “yantok” approach.
He suggested we do “what the superior races do”–impose heavy fines on those who violate health protocols.
Clearly, the police need to stop falling back on violence as a solution to every problem. Do they think, for example, that it would be okay to break up an unauthorized birthday party where quarantine restrictions were blatantly violated, by beating the guests and the birthday celebrant with rattan sticks?
We think not.