Representative image (Source: AP)

A man in the Philippines died after being forced to do 300 squats for breaching COVID curfews norms. The city is currently under lockdown due to rising COVID-19 cases.

On April 1, Darren Manaog Peñaredondo, 28, left his home in General Trias, a city in Cavite province, to buy water. As South China Morning Post has reported, his wife Reichelyn Balce, said Penaredondo was arrested by village watchmen and then turned over to the police.

The police told him to do "pumping exercises" 100 times for violating the curfew rules. The police made him repeat the exercises, meaning he ultimately did about 300 repetitions.

Balce said her husband had a heart condition and could barely walk when he got home the next day. “He was in a lot of pain”, she said. The next day he had a “convulsion” and died hours later.

Due to the rising COVID-19 cases, Metro Manila and the provinces of Bulacan, Laguna, Rizal and Cavite are currently on strict lockdown, and a nightly curfew from 6 pm to 5 am is being imposed, the daily has reported.

Philippine police said on April 7 they are investigating the death of a Peñaredondo.

Police have punished more than 10,000 people for breaching a 6.00 pm to 5.00 am curfew imposed on Metro Manila and four provinces bordering the national capital region last week to curb soaring infections.

National police spokesman Ildebrandi Usana said the city's police chief and two officers have been removed from their posts pending the results of an investigation into the incident.

Peñaredondo is not the first to encounter such a brutal approach.

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Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said on April 5 that local officials should consider using community service to punish people breaking lockdown rules, rather than jailing or fining them.

Rights groups have previously raised concerns about excessive punishments for people caught breaching COVID-19 restrictions.

During last year's months-long lockdown, police and officials held curfew violators in dog cages and forced them to sit in the midday sun as punishment, Human Rights Watch has said.

The Philippines on April 8 has reported 9,216 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total cases to 828,366 with 14,119 fatalities.

The country has received an initial shipment of 525,600 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine through the WHO Covax facility. It is the second vaccine brand delivered to the Philippines while the other is Sinovac from China.

As of April 6, nearly 923,000 doses of both Sinovac and AstraZeneca vaccines have been administered across the country.

Currently, the country has temporarily suspended the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine against COVID-19 for those younger than 60 years of age following reports of rare blood clots in some recipients.

Follow our full coverage of the coronavirus pandemic here.

(With inputs from AFP)

Philippines man dies after being forced to do 300 squats for breaching COVID-19 norms

Darren Manaog Peñaredondo is not the first to encounter such a brutal approach. Rights groups have previously raised concerns about excessive punishments for people caught breaching COVID-19 restrictions.

Representative image (Source: AP)