Manila cop enforcing lockdown hits resident

The Manila Police District (MPD) said it would investigate one of its men who was caught on video swearing at and hitting with a stick a resident of the Golden Mosque Compound in Quiapo on Wednesday.

In a text message sent to the Inquirer on Thursday, newly appointed MPD chief Police Brig. Gen. Rolando Miranda said they were still confirming the identity of the policeman.

However, Police Lt. Col. Reynaldo Magdaluyo, the head of MPD Station 3, confirmed in a radio interview that he was the one in the video.

Posted on social media, the video showed a policeman, surrounded by several other lawmen, warning people that those caught outside their houses in violation of the quarantine would be shot.

He then asked a man, who was in a black hoodie with a handkerchief tied around his face, why he was out in the streets.

When the man showed a quarantine pass, the policeman replied: “So what? Are you supposed to use that right now?” He then swore at the man and hit him with a stick while saying, “Do you think that a quarantine pass is like a free pass?”

The MPD said in a statement that it would not tolerate or condone “any wrongdoing of any of our policemen while strictly implementing the enhanced community quarantine.”It added that despite the implementation of the lockdown, the rights of civilians must be “respected at all times.”

Miranda, meanwhile, said he would remind his men to be “polite in discharging their duties.”

To limit the movement of people during the Luzon-wide lockdown, local governments in Metro Manila have issued quarantine passes which may be used by only one member of a household. The passes allow the holder to go out but only for essential errands like buying food or medicine.