The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) on Wednesday urged the Philippine National Police (PNP) to suspend its anti-tambay (loiterer) campaign until grounds for the arrests are explained to the public.
CHR Commissioner Gwen Pimentel said the police should explain who are considered “tambays” or loiterers.
“What is the extent of this crackdown? If we call it crackdown, or this arresting of tambays, what is the meaning of tambays? So that people will also know,” CHR Pimentel said.
“Am I being a loiterer if I do this? If I go to a sari-sari store at night, do I fear that I’m just going to be nabbed by a policeman because I’m a loiterer?” she added.
PNP chief Oscar Albayalde on Monday said guidelines would be released to help the police identify loiterers on the streets.
Pimentel said the PNP must consider the jurisdiction of local ordinances that it will collate for the basis of its arrest before it continues the campaign.
“Even in collating these local ordinances, you have to realize that the effectivity of such ordinance is only within the town or city. So in doing so, you have to have the basis of the ordinances they have issued to be a foundation of your action,” she said.
The CHR said in a statement that loiterers cannot be arrested just because they are seen as “potential threat to the public,” citing President Rodrigo Duterte’s speech on June 13.
Duterte advised loiterers to “go home” and not stir any trouble.
But the CHR reiterated that it is not right to consider loiterers criminals since doing so would be “a form of discrimination that can cause unnecessary stigma.”
Data from the National Capital Region Police Office indicated that 7,291 loiterers have been arrested in Metro Manila since June 13 for violations such as smoking and drinking in public, roaming around half-naked, and breach of peace among others.
Rights group Karapatan criticized the order and said it was reminiscent of Martial Law “when curfews were enforced by his (former president Ferdinand Marcos) brutal state forces.”
However, Malacañang denied this and said that the President has “no reason yet” to declare martial law nationwide.
Sen. Grace Poe on Wednesday also asked the PNP leadership to orient the policemen on how to properly implement the anti-tambay operation to avoid violating human rights.
“We recognize the objectives of the ‘anti-tambay operations.’ However, implementing it requires clear guidelines and safeguards against violation of human rights,” Poe said.
Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon said vagrancy is not a crime: “I do not know on what basis the arrests are being made.”
“There must be a crime committed. The PNP should know that and they can be liable for arbitrary arrest if they violate the law,” he said in an interview.
Sen. Panfilo Lacson said the campaign may reduce criminality but the police “must find a specific law that they could stand on before they continue with this new anti crime drive.”
Sen. Leila de Lima said the President and the PNP “cannot just make up a law out of thin air.”
“Hanging out has never been a crime. It is not even vagrancy, an act that was decriminalized precisely because of the law’s discriminatory and senseless objective,” she said.
with BERNADETTE TAMAYO