Corona Daily 385: Terror in the Time of Covid

Those unhappy about masks, missing birthday parties, restricted travel may want to look at the happenings in Philippines and Columbia.

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Philippines has the fiercest and longest lockdown in the world. Its president Rodrigo Durerto, 75, declared a national emergency on 9 March. Ten days later, he declared “a state of calamity” for six months. The entire nation was placed under a General Community Quarantine. Armed forces and national police are deployed to ensure discipline. If they see any violent lockdown violators, Durerto has said, “shoot them dead”. Fake news peddlers can be imprisoned for up to 12 years and/or fined up to $ 20000.

Since March, presidential security has implemented a “no-touch policy”. Nobody is allowed to touch Durerte or any of his family members. (Punishment for doing so is not specified.)

On 3 July, the president signed into law an anti-terrorism bill. A council appointed by Durerto is now authorized to designate any individual or group as “terrorists”, arrest and detain them without a warrant or charge for 14 days, extendable by another ten. The bill also allows for 90 days of surveillance and wiretaps and punishments that include life imprisonment without parole.

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Last week, ABS-CBN, the largest broadcaster of Philippines was made defunct. Functioning over 25 years, watched by 60 million viewers, the broadcaster’s fault was its independent views. In more than a dozen court cases, its executives were charged with labour abuse, tax evasion, and biased reporting. Its chairman Gabby Lopez III was born to Filipino parents in the USA. This fact was used to accuse ABS-CBN of foreign ownership. All its TV and radio stations have been shut, its 11000 employees rendered unemployed.

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Despite the longest lockdown, Philippines has 67,000 cases and 1830 deaths. On 13 July, it saw the biggest rise with 3000 infections and 162 deaths in a single day.

This week Durerto has introduced a new plan called “care strategy”. It requires the national police to conduct house-to-house searches. Infected people without an individual bathroom, or with an old person or a pregnant woman in the house will be forcibly relocated to isolation facilities. Citizens have been asked to report suspected people to the police.

The plan has been compared to the drug war tactics Durerto had earlier employed. In the four years as president, he ran a campaign that left 27000 dead.

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On the other side of the Pacific, armed groups are dictating curfew conditions in Columbia. A proxy civil war has been going on in that country for the past fifty years. A Marxist-Leninist guerrilla group “FARC” aimed to overthrow the government. It financed its operations by kidnapping, drugs, extortion and illegal gold mining. That group has disarmed in 2016 and become a political party. But many of its ex-members have formed armed gangs across the country.

These groups, through whatsapp and pamphlets, are imposing their own curfews and lockdowns, more draconian than the government’s. National Liberation Army (ELN) in Bolivar announced they were forced to kill people in order to preserve lives, because the population didn’t respect the orders. At least ten civilians have been killed for breaking curfews or drinking in a bar. Motorcycles that moved during curfew were burnt. Armed groups always seek social and territorial control; the pandemic has provided them with a perfect opportunity. Despite all efforts, Columbia has 190,000 cases and 6500 deaths.

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Perhaps it is better to fall victim to Covid-19 in a democracy where discipline and rules are flouted, than survive in a land of terror.

Ravi