Answer to Question #156841 in English for Jon jay mendoza

Question

Read and analyze the following editorial taken from Manila Times. Identify the main claim of the text. Are you for or against it? Create a persuasion map to express your view on this matter.

Yantok: From a tool for punishment to a means ofself-defense?

ADD yantok (truncheon) to the national vocabulary and Police arsenal. And thank Covid-19 for yanking it out of the lexicon of the Philippine National Police (PNP).

With a grim determination to police the country’s observance of the longest Christmas season in the world during the coronavirus pandemic, the Police on Friday threatened to cane people, who violate physical-distancing protocols as the nation fights the spread of the coronavirus during the festive season.

Police Gen. Cesar Binag, commander of the coronavirus task force, announced that Police and soldiers would patrol in public areas in Metro Manila, the hotspot of Covid-19 cases, carrying one-meter-long rattan sticks called yantok to measure the distance between people.

“[The yantok] can be used to cane the hardheaded,” Gen. Binag said, adding that the “[physical]-distancing patrols” would focus on high-traffic areas such as transport hubs and public markets.

The head of the government’s quarantine enforcement explained that the rattan sticks are used in training members of the Police force, and they are officially issued equipment for policemen.

The plan has predictably raised eyebrows among human rights advocates, who have criticized the government’s militaristic approach to the pandemic.

The authorities have apprehended, warned and penalized around 700,000 people since March for violating various measures such as ignoring physical distancing rules and not wearing face masks.

Now, the Police are threatening to cane physical-distancing violators.

This turn of events caught the eye of Reuters, the foreign news service agency. And the story is now making the rounds of the world’s capitals; thereby, reinforcing the well-known fact that President Rodrigo Duterte has imposed one of the world’s strictest and longest-running coronavirus lockdowns in the world, which has driven the national economy into recession.

The threat of caning physical-distancing violators is just the latest draconian measure that the authorities are implementing. It needs a second look, lest the Police like it too much, and we become like Singapore or Brunei, two Southeast Asian countries that prescribe caning as a punishment for certain offenses, ranging from vandalism to drug-related or sexual crimes.

It has already been announced that for the holidays, the government bans Christmas parties, family reunions and caroling outside homes. An earlier plan to allow minors to visit the shopping malls has been scrapped.

All of these are ostensibly justified by the fact that the Philippines has the second-highest number of Covid cases and casualties in Southeast Asia next to Indonesia.

As if realizing, belatedly, that caning miscreants might be a bit too much if not ridiculous, Gen. Binag yesterday quickly qualified his earlier announcement.

He explained on Teleradyo that the yantok will be used only for self-defense by Police in enforcing health protocols in public places, particularly in dispersing crowds flouting rules on physical distancing.

“If our authorities are being assaulted, including those in barangay (villages)… [they] have no other choice but to defend themselves and arrest [attackers], making use of unarmed arresting techniques, and this is where the use of yantok will be implemented,” Binag explained.

He shifted his message from caning for quarantine violations to using the cane only for self-defense after the Commission on Human Rights branded caning as a form of violence and cautioned the government against “unnecessary” use of force and actions that may traumatize and humiliate people.

Frankly, it is hard for us to imagine that citizens would openly flout rules on physical distancing and dare the Police to stop them.

That is not normally a sound reason for extreme or punitive action.

Answer 1

The main claim is the enforcement of Covid 19 safety measures and protocol. However, i am against this move, since it not only goes against human rights but also makes the citizens feel threatened by the administration. Thus, such cruel and tough measures should be avoided.