When VIPs can break quarantine, when ‘military mindset’ rules

TRUST ISSUES Medical anthropologist and Inquirer Opinion columnist Dr. Michael Tan and other resource persons discuss how the coronavirus pandemic and the ensuing lockdown have disrupted the lives of Filipinos, in a webinar on Wednesday titled “Undue Caution or Reasonable Precaution: Living with COVID.” The online forum was sponsored by Inquirer.net and The Medical City.

Reports on how people in authority flagrantly violate quarantine erode the public’s trust in the government, health experts warned.

News on how Police Maj. Gen. Debold Sinas, head of the National Capital Region Police Office, allowed the holding of a birthday party in which a liquor ban and rules on physical distancing, and the wearing of face masks were allegedly violated further weakens confidence in government, especially in a time of concern over the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

Dr. Michael Tan, a medical anthropologist and Inquirer Opinion columnist, said that for poor men or women, the picture of Sinas blowing the candles on a birthday cake stressed “the inconsistency and the biased treatment they get every day, like in the checkpoints.”

“The worst thing to happen is they go everywhere on foot, they have their papers checked, and are tested by thermal scanners, but a car breezes through … I’m sure poor people [notice] the poor treatment. Also the arrogance,” he said.

Tan was a speaker in Wednesday’s webinar, “Undue Caution or Reasonable Precaution: Living With COVID,” sponsored by Inquirer.net and The Medical City (TMC). The others were TMC chair Jose Xavier Gonzales, CEO Dr. Eugenio Jose Ramos and Dr. Trixie Tiangco of the hospital’s Augusto Sarmiento Cancer Institute.

Shock and awe

Tan noted the “shock and awe” of ordinary civilians who braced for restricted mobility during quarantine but were apparently unprepared for the “coercive power of the state” and the “police and military presence that became stronger” as days went by.

He cited the arrest of 21 residents of Barangay San Roque in Quezon City after they sought food aid two weeks after the government imposed quarantine in Metro Manila, as well as the shooting to death of a 63-year-old man in Nasipit, Agusan del Norte. The man, said to be the first known civilian fatality during the quarantine, was allegedly drunk when he threatened barangay officials and police at a checkpoint.

The day before the shooting, President Rodrigo Duterte announced on TV that his “orders to the police and the military [is that] if anyone creates trouble [for civilians] and their lives are in danger, shoot them dead.”

Tan also recalled the shooting of former soldier Winston Ragos by a cop after an argument. Ragos was found to have been afflicted with post-traumatic stress disorder and was unarmed during the incident. Ragos’ death showed “the lack of social safety nets in quarantine,” especially for those needing to buy medicines for medical conditions ranging “from tuberculosis to mental health,” Tan said.

He also cited the recent lockdown of barangays in Tondo, Manila, where 1,400 cops, including 200 members of the Special Action Force, forcibly restricted residents indoors: “People said they would be given criminal records [for leaving their homes]. Later, it turned out that [authorities] were supposed to implement mass testing, which people would now see as a military affair, like hunting down criminals. It was a very, very bad move. I don’t know how we can repair that.”

Tan said the government must try to make itself trustworthy while also showing trust if it wanted to gain the people’s confidence and convince them to follow orders more easily.

“It’s a matter of building trust. The reason the authorities are so hard on people is because they don’t trust people. They have to learn to trust people, that they will comply, that people understand what’s behind this,” Tan said.“On the other hand,” he said, “people need to trust government. Government has a very low credibility and that’s going to be tougher … You show respect to people, they will respect you. It has to be reciprocated.”

Members of the TMC team observed that social distancing and using face masks had contributed greatly to controlling the spread of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. However, they said, poor implementation of quarantine rules was hampering efforts.

Social distancing is “impossible” in areas “where people live so close together,” Ramos said.

“And these people need to go out and work [in places] where manual labor cannot prevent them from being close to one another. That has an impact … Social distance assumes people have all the space to live in, but a lot of Filipinos live in places without social distancing,” he said.

Authorities should also examine the “military mindset” displayed at checkpoints where civilians who cannot afford face masks are accosted, Ramos said.

“Somebody has to take a look at this. At the checkpoint is the military mindset. We obey, we follow rules that cannot be explained. People are actually arguing with these military people, and it can [lead to] violence,” he said, adding that while those at the checkpoints were just following rules, they could also consider addressing civilians better.

Sinas’ cake

Citing the photo of Sinas blowing candles on his birthday cake, Gonzales said the act posed risks related to COVID-19: “There is the element of personal hygiene about face masks and social distancing … Do you want to eat the cake of the guy who blew out the candle?”

Gonzales also raised the apparent need to promote the practice of wearing face masks.

“I walk about in markets in Caloocan,” he said. “Maybe we [can] encourage people to make sure they cover their nose and mouth with a mask [and not pull it] down. If [they] need a respite, go somewhere away and then come back. This is something not Western and not practiced in the US, but it is practiced in Asian countries.”

Tiangco said civilians did not have to wear the N95 masks worn by medical personnel. “For going out of the house, even a cloth mask will do,” she said.