Constitutional rights during ECQ Hidden Agenda

The President has just ordered the extension of the enhanced community quarantine until May 15 in Metro Manila, Central Luzon, CALABARZON and other high-risk areas like Cebu City and Davao City.

Unfortunately, these  the same areas where business activity is concentrated and where large industries operate.

For some people, this is acceptable. After all, they manage to work from home, are able to buy their food and other needs and have enough savings, to tide them over for less than three more weeks. They have accepted the fact that it is better to stay at home than increase the risk of them catching COVID-19. Large businesses can manage to defer payments by their customers but still be able to pay their suppliers, service providers, employees and workers.  For these people and businesses, they just have to tighten their belts and find more ways to cope better.

Unfortunately for those who rely on help from government in terms of monetary and other forms of assistance, the extension means more weeks of no work, of waiting for the next wave of food relief from their local government units which, unfortunately, is coming in trickles.

Increased military and police presence is expected during the duration of the ECQ. But government should also remind these men in uniform to exercise maximum tolerance and to respect human rights.

Take the case of the recent incident at the Pacific Plaza Towers inside Bonifacio Global City.

According to news reports and accounts from the condo residents, a group of policemen entered the Pacific Plaza Towers apparently without a lawful order, went to the pool area, and one of them, said to be the head of the PNP detachment in BGC, started shouting at and taunting residents he found walking along the pathway. Note that the policemen were armed with armalite rifles.

In a communication sent to the condo residents and unit owners, PPT Condominium Corp. president Erwin Elechicon said their security staff was unable to prevent their entry despite their attempts to do so. The police personnel, who were apparently agitated, loudly insisted that they  were there to check PPT’s compliance with the IATF guidelines and the Taguig City and Barangay Fort Bonifacio pronouncements in combating COVID-19 and that they have received reports that some residents were not practicing social distancing guidelines, not wearing face masks, ignoring restrictions on gathering together, and that PPT had not shut down its open areas and facilities, Elechicon pointed out.

He noted that the police personnel, led by one Major Joseph Austria, proceeded to the back garden and pool area where there were six to eight residents, all practicing proper social distancing, none using the pool facilities, and just walking or seated.  Despite this, the armed policemen and the major who was not wearing a face mask accosted some of the residents there, berated them loudly for not following the guidelines, and curtly shouted at them to go away.

Elechicon added that their legal counsel is working on the appropriate legal action to take which may include a restraining order against similar actions in the future, a criminal complaint against the police personnel involved, and a civil action for possible violations of property and personal rights for, among others, trespassing since they entered without some form of warrant or authorization.

In an article by Rappler, retired Supreme Court associate justice Antonio Carpio pointed out that it was illegal for policemen to barge into the premises of PPT without any court-issued search or arrest warrant. While the Taguig City Police said that it was Taguig City Mayor Lino Cayetano who ordered cops to go to the condo, Carpio stressed that the police still had no legal basis and no crime was being committed by the residents, adding that every unit owner has a right to use a common area subject to reasonable rules by the condominium management.

Unfortunately, the PNP and the Department of the Interior and Local Government have cleared the cops, saying they were just doing their jobs, the article said.

Carpio emphasized that the case is like sitting on a bench in the garden of one’s single detached residence which is not a crime. He said that there is no other law that prohibits it and assuming there is, entry would still be unconstitutional without the police securing a warrant since it will violate the constitutional rights to security of abode and right to privacy.

For his part, Mayor Cayetano said the policemen went to PPT three times to remind residents about using the common space during the lockdown but nobody followed the authorities, adding that congregating in the condo common area is a violation of the ECQ.

Even the authorities are getting confused about what enforcement of the ECQ entails. For condominium dwellers, common areas are owned by everyone and so they are free to use it, even during the duration of the ECQ, subject to observance of physical distancing and the use of face masks. But assuming for the sake of argument that this is not the case, the police still have no right to enter the gates of PPT without a warrant because again, this is private property.

This is not a case of applying the law to everyone, rich and poor alike, or of residents of PPT asserting that they have better rights than others. The police clearly violated constitutional rights, and the PNP, DILG and the Taguig City government should not be too quick in dismissing this.

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