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MANILA: Philippine police received criticism from netizens and activists on Sunday (September 6) over a plan to monitor social media to enforce quarantine rules, with critics accusing authorities of authoritarianism and double standards.
National Police Lieutenant General Guillermo Eleazar, head of a task force that enforces quarantine protocols, warned of fines and community service sanctions for people who violate precautionary measures, while violators of liquor bans they will face “additional charges.”
“The police could use public posts on social media as clues, and these will be above the police visibility operations we are conducting and will complement the advice we receive from the police hotline,” Eleazar told Reuters by telephone.
Manila ended a second round of strict lockdown measures on August 19 to boost business activity, but people are still required to wear masks in public and observe a distance of 1 meter, while urging children, the elderly and pregnant women to stay home.
READ: Philippines Extends Partial COVID-19 Restrictions in Manila Until September 30
The plan to monitor social media, announced on Saturday, appears 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, left-wing general secretary. The activist group of the Bayan wing (Nation) said on Twitter.
Critics said the plan shows double standards after a police chief was allowed to keep his post despite disobeying a ban on social gatherings in May.
LEE: The Philippines reports 2,218 new cases of COVID-19, the lowest increase in 5 weeks
Photographs on the police force’s Facebook page showed Debold Sinas, police chief of the National Capital Region, celebrating his birthday along with dozens of people without masks sitting together, beer cans on their tables despite the prohibition of alcohol. Sinas apologized.
Eleazar said criminal and administrative cases have been filed against Sinas for the incident.
The Philippines has recorded 234,570 coronavirus cases, the highest in Southeast Asia, with 3,790 deaths from COVID-19.
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