Sinas clarifies ‘yantok’ won’t be used to harm quarantine violators

PNP chief Gen. Debold Sinas. (Photo from PNP PIO)

MANILA, Philippines — Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Police General Debold Sinas on Tuesday said social distancing patrollers will not use yantok or rattan sticks to hit violators of health protocols.

“Kapag nakita mo ang baton natin, maiksi lang iyon. Maiksi lang iyong makita mo at least one foot lang ata iyong baton so we prefer a longer one, which is yung yantok, para po mas mahaba para iyon ang magdedetermine ng proper social distancing. Hindi po iyon [yantok] gagamitin sa pamamalo,” Sinas said in a PNP press briefing at Camp Crame, Quezon City, reacting to President Rodrigo Duterte’s plan to require batons as “first line of defense” to prevent lawmen from using firearms.

(If you look at the baton, it is shorter. It is  at least one foot so we prefer longer one which are yantok to help enforce proper social distancing. It won’t be used to whip people.)

He added that the yantok is used to subdue those who are unruly or those who will resist arrest.

“Also kaya kami nagkwan, iyan [yantok] po kapag may violent or nagresist instead na barilin kaagad namin, iyong na lang po ang pagsubdue po namin,” Sinas said.

(Instead of guns, yantok will be first used to subdue violent people or those who will resist.)

Police Lieutenant General Cesar Hawthorne Binag, chief of Joint Task Force COVID Shield, revealed that more than 598,000 individuals violators were already recorded since the lockdown started in mid-March.

Last week, Binag said they will use the rattan sticks to enforce COVID-19 health protocols to hit those who will violate social distancing.

The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) said police officers should not use violence when enforcing pandemic because it could lead to trauma and humiliation.

JPV