In a phone interview with Isa Umali of Super Radyo DZBB on Saturday, March 21, 2020, Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) undersecretary for barangay affairs Martin Diño said, “Ang karapatang pantao ay nawawala ‘pag dating ng state of emergency dahil ‘pag state of emergency ang first and foremost natin ay kaligtasan ng sambayanang Pilipino” and that “‘pag ka ho meron tayong state of emergency, ‘yung writ of habeas corpus ay nawawala na po ‘yan.”

[Human rights disappear when it comes to a state of emergency, because a state of emergency is first and foremost after the safety of the Filipino people and that when we have a state of emergency, the writ of habeas corpus disappear.]

The official dismissed inquiries regarding the arrests and rights of alleged quarantine violators.

Human rights group Karapatan is alarmed over such statements that claim individuals can be arrested without warrant during the Luzon-wide “enhanced community quarantine” against the COVID-19 pandemic. The claim was supposedly because human rights disappear and the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus is suspended when a state of emergency is declared.

The group described Diño’s claims as alarming, dangerous, absurd, baseless and outright false.

Karapatan Deputy Secretary General Roneo Clamor averred that “a state of public health emergency only imposes certain and necessary restrictions on civil liberties to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 but such declaration does not in any way remove our basic human rights nor suspend the privilege the writ of habeas corpus. The DILG undersecretary is sowing disinformation with very serious implications on human rights and on how uniformed personnel and authorities, particularly barangay officials, conduct arrests and implement quarantine measures in their communities.”

 

Quarantine passes

Citing the circulation of a bogus and unauthorized “window hour” advisory, Clamor said that “disinformation has emboldened policemen to accost and round up individuals, despite such advisory being disowned by the police and the Inter-Agency Task Force. Disinformation combined with vague confusing directives put people’s rights and security in a position vulnerable to violations from authorities.”

Clamor also detailed reports regarding certain barangays issuing and distributing home quarantine passes containing certifications that an individual must not be a member of any “subversive” organization in the locality in order to hold the pass. A resident of Brgy. Tatala, Binangonan, Rizal reported to Karapatan that the quarantine pass issued by their barangay last Thursday, March 19, 2020, contained a certification that the pass holder “has no derogatory record or a member of any subversive organization in the locality.”

Karapatan called this profiling a tokhang-style tactic as part of the government’s whole of nation counterinsurgency campaign.

“We are alarmed that such certifications in quarantine passes are being exploited to conduct profiling and surveillance of activists and their families at the community level. This is a tokhang-style tactic that has been carried over to the government’s fascist whole-of-nation counterinsurgency campaign, where local government units down to the barangay level are mobilized for profiling, with deadly consequences,” he continued.

Karapatan also slammed the penalties imposed on violators of the Muntinlupa City Ordinance 2020-074, enacted on March 20, placing the city under 24-hour curfew. In the said order, noperson is allowed to go out of their homes during the quarantine period.

 

 

First-time violators would be penalized with the cancellation of scholarships and other assistance from the local government. The second and last offense provided a penalty of the withholding of relief goods and other assistance until the end of the quarantine period.

Exempted from this order are frontliners and workers providing essential service, peace and order personnel, and those who are buying basic commodities, limited to one person per household and given a home quarantine pass. Home quarantine passes were still being prepared as of yesterday and any government-issued id will be allowed until such passes were distributed.

“We remind the DILG, barangay officials, and local government units that protecting the rights to life and to security amid this public health crisis does not and should not justify draconian measures that imperil other basic rights and civil liberties, or inhumane penalties and conditions that would allow the denial of relief to any individual,” Clamor asserted.

On the thread of its announcement, netizens and residents of the city expressed their opinion on the said order.

 

 

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