MANILA, Philippines — The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) has ordered the Philippine National Police to conduct a “thorough” investigation into the reported death of a male curfew violator in Cavite.
According to DILG spokesperson Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya, DILG officer in charge Bernardo Florece ordered the probe following reports that victim Darren Peñaredondo died after he was allegedly forced to do a body pumping exercise 300 times as punishment for violating quarantine protocols.
“All police officers who will be proven to have violated the law will be prosecuted and meted with appropriate criminal penalties,” Malaya said in a message to INQUIRER.net.
According to reports, Peñaredondo only went out to buy mineral water but was arrested and brought to the General Trias Police Station last Thursday, April 1.
Peñaredondo then started having seizures on Saturday, April 3, and died in the hospital the same day.
But General Trias police chief Police Lt. Col. Mario Celero earlier denied the involvement of its local police in the incident.
“Upon our investigation, we found out that one Darren Peñaredondo was arrested not by policemen but by barangay tanod [watchmen] in Barangay Tejero on Thursday night,” Celero was quoted in a report as saying.
Cavite province is currently under the strictest enhanced community quarantine status along with Metro Manila, Bulacan, Laguna and Rizal amid the surging cases of COVID-19 in the said areas.
Cavite police chief Colonel Marlon Santos said that as of April 5, 1,409 COVID-19 protocol violators have already been nabbed in the province.