No to Militarized Responses to COVID 19

April 24, 2020

Reference:  Emalyn M. Aliviano- 0932-357-6253

Spokesperson- KILUSAN Cebu

The high-handedness of local authorities in dealing with issues related to the current COVID epidemic in the country is alarming, especially as this happens under threats of “martial law-type of lockdown”.

The deployment of battle-ready soldiers and policemen and Armored Personnel Carriers (APCs) in imposing the “total lockdown” of Sitio Zapatera, Barrio Luz, Cebu City was indicative of the “martial law-type lockdown” threat.

The total lockdown was imposed after the City Health Office, declared the sitio of some 9,000 residents as “totally contaminated. It was presumed “the residents are infected” after the City Health Office has reportedly found positive cases of Covid-19 infection from testing done at the two end sections of the barangay.  That assessment was used as basis for the decision to discontinue further testing. At that point, 135 individuals have tested Covid-19 positive, after several tests were done since the first case was identified on April 12.

The residents, expectedly, were adamant at first because the first confirmed cases, instead of being moved to proper quarantine facility, were told to “self-isolate at home”. That was really a careless advice from the personnel of the City Health Office. Are they not aware that the houses in that congested community are too small to even do social or physical distancing? Covid-19 transmission is highly probable in this community. But uncaringly, succeeding cases of Covid-19 positive residents were also told to stay in the sitio, despite the community’s requests that they should be moved to a proper isolation or quarantine facility.   

To underscore its uncaringness or at least, carelessness, the City Health Office ceased COVID-19 testing without transferring the positively tested residents to hospitals or other proper quarantine or isolation facilities.  This is tantamount to criminal negligence! By not pursuing contact tracing and COVID-19 testing of other possible infected persons, the spread or transmission of the novel coronavirus within the community could not be determined.  Without doing these, however, the city government declared the community “totally contaminated”, i.e., a presumption of illness of all residents, without basis. 

Nearly all of the residents have had experience consulting with doctors. They know and understand that definitive conclusion of illness comes as a result of diagnosis – medical check-ups and tests. They want the continuance of testing; they demand protection of their health.  The Brgy. Captain, heeding the residents, formally filed an appeal to the City Mayor on April 17 for resumption of the testing. 

Yet over and above their reaction to the City Health Office’s assessment and decision of discontinuance of testing, a mix of anger, anxiety and fear is being sensed by people. The deployment of APCs to enforce the “total lockdown” left marked in the people’s consciousness the fear that they can be gunned down anytime. The order “shoot them dead” which was earlier told by Duterte to “his policemen” echoed in the collective memory of the residents.

The war is supposed to be with the coronavirus and the plague it is causing.  So why deploy the threatening APCs at all entrances to the barangay and sitio? APCs are meant against armed and visible enemies not the unseen virus. The presence and sight of these killing machines sent chilling message to all the people in Sitio Zapatera, Barangay Luz and to all people who could fall in the same situation later. Are the people in the barangay who fear the infectious and killer virus and are demanding their right to proper health care, now considered enemies of the state? If not, shouldn’t the city government sent the health and medical frontliners instead?

Though the local health office resumed testing after so much public demand for it, repression however is continuing. Ms. Maria Victoria Beltran, a two-time media awardee and well renowned writer/artist and a businesswoman, was arrested, without warrant, at the dead of the night (12:30 am, Monday) for her reaction to the presumption of illness of 9000 residents of Sitio Zapatera.  Her post read “9,000+ new cases (All from Zapatera) of Covid-19 in Cebu City in one day. We are now the epicentre in the whole Solar System “. 

The City Health Office’s assessment of the coronavirus infection in Sitio Zapatera, which saw print, was an overstatement and baseless. Without observing proper procedure and no proper diagnosis, the “assessment” is now proven factually erroneous. Succeeding tests showed only one resident tested COVID-19 positive on April 18, as per DOH report on April 19. 

Cebu City Mayor Labella called Ms. Maria Victoria Beltran’s posts “fake news” and that she is “criminally liable” for that. The Mayor maybe does not understand or has no aesthetic sense.  Ms. Beltran’s posts were certainly reactions done in exaggerated manner and with sarcasm and overstatement; a figure of speech used to underscore a point, but obviously, just that. In short, it was just a reaction to a grave injustice to the residents of Sitio Zapatera. 

Anti-virus or anti-people response?

Utterances and actions by the local government executive and by the police and military, which are consistent with authoritarian orders from the tyrant in Malacanang, are aggravating the people’s burdens and fears. They are making insignificant the heroic deeds and sacrifices of the medical, health and other front liners and the commendable initiatives and efforts of a good number of local government officials.       

Millions of people are hungry and have not received food or cash aids. Many of the people that should be given priority to COVID-19 testing are impatiently waiting for their turn. Despite this reality and Duterte’s “advices” like, “bear a little with your hunger, you will not die from it” and threats like “shoot them dead”, reactions or opinions that do not conform to announcements and claims by government officials can be considered a crime. “Violations” of ECQ rules such as stay at home, social distancing and curfew are crimes. In fact, anyone can be shot and killed for this.   

It seems public officials now are beyond reproach. The use of figures of speech is now illegal or criminal liability and one can be warrantlessly arrested at the dead of the night for that. The signals coming from the government are complications of misdeeds and delayed deliveries but very prompt with threats against freedom and human rights, especially right to life and right to health.

Threats and real curtailment of civil rights are continuing. Last April 17, additional 860 armed security forces from the Central Command and Regional Police Office were deployed to Cebu City. Is extending ECQ or lockdown of Cebu City mean transforming it into a war zone and not a public health crisis zone?

These successive incidents in Cebu City seem to confirm that martial-law-like lockdown will be done in this city and perhaps the whole of Metro Cebu. They have chilling effects that overshadow the chills brought by the COVID 19 pandemic-- the threat to our freedom, our civil liberties, and our lives.

These are trying times for all people, especially the most vulnerable poor and marginalized sectors of the population. They are already victimized several times over. First, their long-running deprivation. Second, the loss of jobs and livelihood because of the lockdown. Third, the illnesses that threaten the lives of their friends and loved ones; and, finally the fear and anxiety of the virus’ threats to their lives. These are lingering and are being enhanced by growing state tyranny.

Fear does kill too. Psychiatrists and psychologists can attest to it. The people are being inoculated with an overdose of threats by a tyrannical state.  THIS MUST END.

At this time of crisis, the people need healing and compassion, not intimidation. They need immunity, and protection from the virus. They need proper information and education about this health problem and not insensitive orders like “stay at home” and “do not go out”. They need concrete solutions to their health needs- face masks, testing kits, medicines, PPEs, hospital beds, ICUs, and ventilators, quarantine facilities, more doctors, nurses and medical technologists and other care givers. They need income and not to simply wait, endlessly, for alms. Flaunting authority and naked force will weaken the people against the virus but will build their resolve to resist repression.  

With the people, we demand no less than the utilization of public resources and public power to serve the people’s needs and interests.

Oppose militarization of responses to the COVID 19 epidemic in the country!

Assert and defend the people’s right to good health, to life, to freedom of expression and to all civil liberties. ###

An Open Statement on the Coronavirus Pandemic and the Contamination of Brgy. Luz, Cebu City

April 17, 2020

Reference: Emalyn M. Aliviano, Spokesperson

Mobile phone number: 0932-357-6253

Kilusan-Cebu expresses its utmost concern and strong objection to the government’s response to the coronavirus infection in the country, as exemplified in the case of Sitio Zapatera, Barrio Luz, in Cebu City.

There are reports of a policy to implement absolute lockdown of the community of Sitio Zapatera, Barrio Luz in Cebu City, supposedly because it is ‘considered totally contaminated’. Swab testing in the community has, reportedly, been subsequently withdrawn. Apparently, the DOH has given up on the community, and on the more than 9,000 people living there.

The following questions must be posed – is it presumed that everybody in Sitio Zapatera has been infected with the virus? How did they arrive at such conclusion? Have all the people been tested? And what are the government’s plan to minimize the damage to lives?

Sitio Zapatera in Bo. Luz is a 23, 690 sq. meter urban poor community of some 620 families. Like other urban poor communities, it is densely populated. Each family was officially provided only 30 sq. meter in 2004 by a Cebu City Legislation. Offspring, themselves poor, who eventually formed their own families added up to each household. Two to three families to a household have become common. Industrial and service workers, odd-jobbers, teachers, government employees – toiling people who make the factories churn out goods and who deliver essential services to society – inhabit Sitio Zapatera.

On April 7 the first case of coronavirus infection in the sitio were identified and on April 11 another two cases of infection were identified, presumably as a result of contact tracing. Though they tested positive, they were told to self-quarantine, in their home in that community, which in such types of community, means no quarantining at all. As expected, they infected 21 others, first some members of their family and eventually members of some other families in that congested neighborhood. The number of reported infections grew to 29 in April 15, to 53 in April 16, and to135 currently April 17. Of these positive cases, only 1 taken to the Vicente Sotto Memorial Hospital. The rest were again told to self-quarantine in that congested community.

The policy of absolute lockdown of Sitio Zapatera, with positive cases of infection among the residents,, is akin to putting these 9,000 people in a ship and sending the ship out to sea (akin to infected cruise ships); or putting them all in some enclosed rehabilitation center for detainees with infected persons among them. The virus will definitely spread, as it spread in the Diamond Princess Cruise ship (to more than 800 people, causing no less than 20 deaths) or in the Chicago prison, infecting more than 276 detainees and jail keepers. Yet in those two cases, for humanitarian reasons, under the presumption that society still value human lives, efforts were exerted to identify and isolate those infected and treat them, and save as many human lives as possible. It seems that such humane treatment cannot be accorded to the people of Sitio Zapatera. 

Government authorities are either ignorant, but more likely callous, to think that the enhanced community quarantine (as is, where is) when there are already known cases of infection, will work to contain the infection in urban poor communities.

These communities are the most vulnerable to local transmission of virus. Houses have hardly any space between them making ventilation poor. Each house, of some 25 to 40 sq. meter is normally shared by two or three families. For most residents, the roadside is the only available open space, where they can breathe some fresher air. Social distancing, much more, isolating those positive for infection, are simply not possible under such conditions. Worse, because of pervading poverty, people in urban poor communities are not sufficiently and properly nourished, nor properly treated for various illnesses; hence a considerable number of them have pre-existing medical conditions. The conditions in urban poor communities present all the ingredients for a massive spread of coronavirus.

To lock them down, with cases of infection among them, and withdraw efforts at identifying and isolating those infected in proper quarantine facilities, bespeaks of the virulence of moral decay that has crept into the highest echelon of our society. That is endorsing ‘herd immunity” and subscribing to the law of the jungle of ‘survival of the fittest’. But those concerned beasts, not human beings.

The government has sufficient resources at its command to prevent the unnecessary spread of COVID 19 and hence, loss of lives. We demand that it use these public resources to save the lives of our people:

1. Conduct community-level testing using the rapid tests being used by other countries. And hasten the process of bio-safe testing being done in laboratories. Hire the necessary health personnel for these –nurses, medical technologists, etc.; buy the necessary reagents for the test to be done.
2. Buy these testing kits from where they are being massively produced, possibly China, South Korea and Singapore – counties that have contained infection; do not simply wait for donations. Better still, mobilize local laboratories – of universities and pharmaceutical companies to mass-produce these test kits by subsidizing mass production through various means- subsidized credit, co-financing, tax incentives, and the like;
3. Set up the proper quarantine facilities for those positive of infection but without symptoms yet, and for those who have been exposed to persons who have tested positive (PUIs and PUMs); that would improve monitoring and ensure social distancing;
4. Treat those already sick; render hospital services and medicine accessible to them, free for those certified as indigents;
5. Evacuate vulnerable communities from the flood of infection to effect social distancing. This is a calamity; as in all calamities, evacuate and secure the vulnerable people.
6. Prepare, and disinfect for use, currently idle public facilities – school classrooms, school grounds, sports arena, and parks. When needed, tap the resources under the control of private individuals, corporations and organizations as the country clubs, private school grounds, and when necessary, under-occupied hotels, pension houses, apartels, and inns; Only by doing so can social distancing be practiced by the poor and can we put an end to this epidemic in the country.
7. Ensure the well-being, and protection for our frontliners, both in public and private hospitals. . Many have been infected already (7% of all infections) and more than 20 have died because of insufficient protection. Provide them all the necessary protection –N95 and surgical masks, gloves, protective gowns, headdress and shoe covers, soap and sanitizers – and more importantly, access to testing. Mass-produce those that can be produced locally. Hire all necessary personnel to prevent work overload. Penalize hospital authorities/owners who deny such protection to scrimp on costs. Provide free health insurance to uninsured health care workers, at least for the duration of this pandemic. Provide hazard pay to relieve them of pressures from their families’ daily needs. 
8. Fast-track the build-up of necessary hospital facilities and equipment – hospital space, hospital beds, ICUs, ventilators to prepare for any surge.
9. Meanwhile, ensure that every family has its most basic necessities – food on their table, soap and other toiletries for basic hygiene, clean water for drinking and personal use, others.
10. More importantly, empower the people with knowledge about this problem that is wreaking havoc on their lives.

Positions in government are sought for, as they entail authority and power. However, such are also paid for by the people and should always be treated as public trust. We now demand that such authority and power be used, not against the people, but in the service of the people, especially in this time of crisis. This COVID 19 pandemic now provides another crucible through which everyone in the supposed public service will be tested.

We call on all who value human life to join us in pursuing these calls. Let us work as one for our people in these times of need. ###