ILIGAN CITY (2 June 2020) — Iligan City Rep. Frederick W. Siao has co-authored House Bill 6187, which imposes penalties on anyone who commits discriminatory behavior against declared confirmed, suspect, probable, and recovered cases of COVID-19, repatriated Filipinos, healthcare workers, responders, and service workers.
“These individuals have quickly become likely victims of discrimination due to our fear of getting infected with COVID-19. Although we understand that people need to be extra cautious because the virus is spreading around, it should not go to the extent of discrimination,” Siao said.
Cases of verbal, physical, and psychological harassment or assault will have a penalty of imprisonment for 1 to 10 years, or a fine of 200,000 pesos to a million pesos, or both, subject to the court’s discretion.
Publicly disclosing a person’s COVID-19 status on social media or other platforms, failure or refusal to give assistance, and unlawfully refusing to honor valid and existing contracts will be penalized with imprisonment for 6 months to 5 years, or a fine of 50,000 pesos to 500,000 pesos, or both, subject to the court’s discretion.
“There have been several reports of discrimination experienced by families, health workers, and other frontliners. Some were kicked out of their apartments. Some were locked up inside their houses by their own neighbors. Some were maligned on social media. We thought this bill would be able to address this issue,” Siao added.
The bill has already passed final reading and has been transmitted to the Senate.