In the middle of enhanced community quarantine, different LGUs are pouring in their efforts to implement the guidelines set by Malacanang.
One of the rules is to strictly implement home quarantine. This means no one is allowed to do non-essential travel. Only one person per household is allowed to go out to get food and medicine and replenish other supplies at home. Moreover, a curfew between 8 PM to 5 AM has been set. However, some are still not following this.
In Paranaque, individuals who are caught violating curfew rules are disciplined by letting them sit under the sun. This was shared on the official Facebook page of Barangay San Isidro in Parañaque.
However, not everyone agrees with this. One commenter said, “This is torture. If they won’t get heatstroke, they’ll get tons of mosquito bites at night.”
Apparently, this form of disciplining violators is against the Republic Act No. 9745 or the Anti-Torture Act of 2009, physical torture is defined as “a form of treatment or punishment inflicted by a person in authority or agent of a person in authority upon another in his/her custody that causes severe pain, exhaustion, disability, or dysfunction of one or more parts of the body.”
This includes “Harmful exposure to the elements such as sunlight and extreme cold.”
In Section 4 of Parañaque’s Ordinance No. 2020-03 signed on March 15, police officers and barangay officials are tasked to enforce the curfew. However, they were not instructed to detain people but to make sure they are “directed to return to their respective residences, dwelling, or usual place of resting.”
Arrests can only be made, the ordinance said if there is “deliberate or willful refusal to comply with the lawful order of the public officer.”
But even if there were arrests made, they should not be detained outside. Under Rule 113, Section 3, of the Revised Rules of Criminal Procedures, arrested persons must be brought “to the nearest police station or jail without unnecessary delay.”
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