Philippine police yesterday drew criticism from Internet users and advocates for a plan to monitor social media to enforce COVID-19 quarantine rules, with critics accusing the authorities of authoritarianism and double standards.
Philippine National Police Lieutenant General Guillermo Eleazar, head of a task force enforcing quarantine protocols, warned of fines and penalties of community service for people violating precautionary measures, while violators of liquor bans would face “additional charges.”
“Police could use public postings on social media as leads, and these will be over and above the police visibility operations we are conducting, and will complement tips we get from police hotline,” Eleazar told reporters by telephone.
Manila on Aug. 19 ended a second round of strict lockdown measures to boost business activity, but people still must wear masks in public and observe 1m distancing, while children, elderly people and pregnant women are urged to stay at home.
The plan to monitor social media, announced on Saturday, seems to show that the police agency “wants to use the pandemic to turn us into a police state, where every action is being watched by the authorities,” Renato Reyes, secretary-general of left-wing advocacy group Bayan (Nation) wrote on Twitter.
Critics said that the plan shows a double standard after a police chief was allowed to keep his post, despite flouting a ban on social gatherings in May.
Photographs on the police force’s Facebook page showed Debold Sinas, chief of the National Capital Region police, celebrating his birthday along with dozens of people without masks sitting close together, with beer cans on their tables, despite an alcohol ban.
Sinas has since apologized.
Eleazar said that criminal and administrative cases have been filed against Sinas for the incident.
The Philippines has recorded 237,365 COVID-19 cases, the highest in Southeast Asia, with 3,875 deaths.
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