Military Lockdown in the Philippines

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The Philippines is taking an aggressive approach to the spread of coronavirus, especially within the urban cities. President Duterte has implemented a military- heavy approach to the containment and enforcement of the countries quarantine restrictions. While quarantine is something the globe is now familiar with, the enforcement style of Duterte has so far resulted in the imprisonment of people leaving their houses in the search for food, homeless left to fend for themselves without government aid or places to shelter, and hundreds of thousands of poor urban communities waiting on government aid tied up in bureaucracy which has yet to reach their households. Similar to outcries from within the US and in places like Japan, apparently the Philippines is keeping the rate of testing low to reflect a low number of positive tests giving the illusion that the Philippines has yet to be crippled by the coronavirus. The lack of transparency from the Filipino government regarding this international issue just highlights the civil injustices boiling over on their national scale. While the US has idiotic protests, at least our government hasn’t unleashed the power of the military against civilians to enforce shelter-in-place restrictions. 

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