The warrantless arrest of 55-year old public school teacher Juliet Espinosa in General Santos City over charges of inciting to sedition sets a dangerous pretext for a crackdown on dissent, human rights group Karapatan warned, amid the government’s continuing militarist response to the 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.

There is no rationale for the appointment of retired military generals in the government’s “National Action Plan” (NAP) against the 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, human rights watchdog Karapatan asserted, rebutting Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo’s statement justifying President Rodrigo Duterte’s appointment of ex-military men to lead the NAP’s implementation.

Human rights alliance Karapatan reiterated the call to free all political prisoners in the Philippines on just and humanitarian grounds, following the urgent appeal of United Nations (UN) High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet for governments to protect people held in overcrowded detention centers and other closed centers from the threat of the 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.

Human rights watchdog Karapatan strongly decried the government’s “double standard” on how penalties are being imposed amid the Luzon-wide “enhanced community quarantine” against the 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.  The group’s statement came after the Department of Justice (DOJ) insisted that Senator Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III — who recently tested positive for COVID-19 — will not be investigated nor subjected to a warrantless arrest despite breaching quarantine protocols in accompanying his wife at the Makati Medical C

President Rodrigo Duterte has now signed into law a measure granting himself emergency powers to supposedly address the public health crisis brought about by the 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19), which allows unbridled and general rule-making authority of the president and without parameters or restrictions including the power to arbitrarily define and penalize "fake news" with up to two months in jail and 1 million pesos of fines.