MANILA: To shoot or not to shoot, that is the question — one that has left experts and human rights groups in the Philippines perplexed.
The confusion follows President Rodrigo Duterte’s statement late Friday night wherein he denied issuing “shoot-to-kill” orders for anyone violating a Luzon-wide lockdown to contain the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in the country.
Experts, however, say it is imperative to read between the lines.
“He must have seen the strong negative reaction from the people. You never issue a shoot-to-kill order publicly,” Fr. Eliseo Mercado of the think tank Institute for Autonomy and Governance told Arab News on Saturday.
Duterte’s instructions follow a protest staged by residents of a village in Quezon City on Wednesday to demand food aid, claiming they had not received relief items since the government placed the entire island under enhanced community quarantine starting March 17. Mercado says the protesters had no choice.
“Those people are hungry because of the lockdown,” he said.
The protests led to Duterte issuing an impromptu order to police, military and village officials to shoot those who “cause chaos during the lockdown.”
“Shoot them dead. Do you understand? Dead. Instead of causing trouble, I’ll send you to the grave,” Duterte said at the time.
However, on Friday night, Duterte took a U-turn in an address to the nation.
“I am a lawyer. I never said in public ‘shoot-to-kill.’ Period,” the president said, emphasizing that he told state forces to use force only if their lives came under threat while making an arrest.
“If they resist ... If they fight back ... if they put (your life) in danger ... shoot them. Kill them. That’s the law,” he stressed.
Human rights groups have since condemned the president’s remarks.
In a statement released on Saturday, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Duterte’s latest threats cannot be ignored.
“At the very least, Duterte gives the police all the justification they need to commit human rights abuses against people who may be violating these COVID-19 regulations because they need to find work or food,” Carlos Conde of HRW said.
Instead of threatening the poor, he argued that the government should extend the necessary assistance during the outbreak.
FASTFACT
The confusion follows Duterte’s statement wherein he denied issuing ‘shoot-to-kill’ orders for anyone violating a Luzon-wide lockdown to contain the spread of COVID-19 in the country.
“Duterte may feel exasperated by incidents of people breaking curfew regulations, but he has to understand that, for the poor affected by this crisis, it is a matter of survival,” Conde said.
On Friday, presidential legal adviser and Malacacang spokesperson Salvador Panelo said that the president “minced no words” in warning of deadly consequences for those who continue to “create unrest, panic, confusion, fear and foment hate against the government.”
“He warned them that if they want trouble and bloodshed, he will accommodate them and give them hell,” Panelo said, referring to Duterte’s previous remarks.
“The president is tasked by the constitution to enforce it and the laws of the land. Transgressors will suffer the consequences of their violations as imposed by law,” he added.
Panelo explained that threatening violators and enemies of the state with deathly violence is “not a crime.”
“The law allows the use of lethal violence when someone’s life depends on it. That is a universal law anchored on the principle of self-preservation,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Department of the Interior and Local Government has urged local government units to hasten the process of assisting the Department of Social Welfare and Development to distribute Social Amelioration Program Bayanihan funds to low-income families.
Interior Secretary Eduardo M. Aco said all LGUs must expedite the distribution, collection, and encoding of the SAP forms of qualified beneficiaries for immediate submission to the DSWD field office in their locality.
Aco added that the government released the first wave of financial assistance to low-income Filipino families on Friday.
Under the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act, a total of P200 billion ($3.9 billion) was allocated toward the SAP Bayanihan Fund to 18 million low-income families affected by the crisis across the country.
