Philippines man dies after police made him do 300 squats for flouting COVID-19 curfew

A quarantine violator in the Philippines has died after being made to do 300 squats by Philippine National Police (PNP) for flouting the stringent curfew imposed throughout the country to stem the COVID-19 surge. The 28-year-old Darren Manaog Penaredondo was caught by an officer for coming out to buy water from a local store in Cavite province and was handed exercise punishment for noncompliance to the 18:00 curfew. He later died back at home after the alleged abuse by the police, his family member informed in a Facebook post, sharing the photograph of his demise. Penaredondo complained about immense pain and was unable to walk the next day. 

The mayor of General Trias town in Cavite, Ony Ferrer, ordered a probe into the matter to ascertain the role of the General Trias Police officers who are now held responsible for the Filipino man’s death by the family, accusing officers of ‘inhuman’ behaviour. They told a reporter of CNN Philippines that the victim was apprehended on April 1 for buying water during the lockdown, a movement which is deemed ‘essential’. Late Filipino man Penaredondo’s cousin Adrian Luceña, in an update on Facebook, said that the Philippine National Police (PNP) nabbed other violators and ordered them to do 100 "pumping exercises" similar to push-ups or squats in sync with each other. Anyone that went out of sync was asked by the uniformed officers to start all over again. 

“He said they were told to do pumping 100 times. They needed to be synchronized so they kept repeating it and ended up doing 300. He started to convulse on Saturday, but we were able to revive him at home. Then his body failed so we revived him again, but he was already comatose. He died at 10 pm. He also told me he fell several times while they were asked to do pumping exercises,” the victim’s cousin wrote on his Facebook page on April 4 in the Philippines’ local Tagalog language. a

'Philippine National Police prepared,' PNP chief had warned

Philippine News Agency reported Tuesday that the police had logged 5,405 violators on the first day of the community quarantine (ECQ) implementation in Metro Manila and four nearby provinces of Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, and Rizal. In the Philippines National Capital Region (NCR), officers caught the highest number of civilians flouting rules, estimated 1,894, as they issued warnings, threatened and slapped penalties for not adhering to mask mandate, and making unauthorized trips outside homes. “The Philippine National Police is prepared because Chief PNP Debold Sinas has been meeting with regional directors and provincial directors,” Lt. Gen. Cesar Hawthorne Binag, chief of the Joint Task Force Covid Shield told Laging Handa briefing warning civilians against making non-authorized outings without a travel pass.