Planting vegetables among ‘best’ punishments for ECQ violators—Palace

MANILA, Philippines — Planting vegetables is among the “best” examples of punishments for violators of the enhanced community quarantine, Malacañang said Monday.

Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said this as he stressed that human rights should not be violated while punishing those who disobeyed quarantine guidelines.

“Bagama’t wala pong nakapataw na talagang parusa doon sa mga lalabag sa ECQ, natural, kinakailangan ito’y sang-ayon sa Saligang Batas at kinakailangan ito’y proportional doon sa objectives ng ECQ na pabagalin ang pagkalat ng COVID-19,” Roque said in an online press conference.

(Although there is no definite punishment for those violating the ECQ, naturally, it has to be apt with the Constitution and be proportional with the objectives of the ECQ which is to slow down the spread of COVID-19.)

“Sa akin po, napakaraming iba’t ibang parusa. Pero siguro po, matuto tayo doon sa ilang mga best examples. Sa Pampanga po, pinagtatanim ng gulay ang mga nahuling nagvviolate ng ECQ, siguro po pwede tayong magkaroon ng mga ganyang parusa na hindi tayo lumalabag sa karapatang pantao,” he added.

(For me, there are a lot of kinds of punishments. But maybe we should learn from the best examples. In Pampanga, violators of ECQ were made to plant vegetables. Maybe we could impose similar punishments where human rights will not be violated.)

Offenders of the enhanced community quarantine in Pampanga were made to plant vegetables by authorities.

But not all officials employed a similar penalty for quarantine violators. In one instance, a barangay official drew flak for supposedly making curfew violators sit under the sun. The official denied reports of such.

Earlier, Roque asked for details on incidents of alleged human rights violations committed by local governments while the quarantine measure is in place.

The Luzon-wide enhanced community quarantine is expected to be lifted by April 30. The measure is intended to curb the number of COVID-19 cases in the country, which is at 6,259 as of Sunday.

Edited by JPV