Filipino politician tries to force LGBT+ people to kiss and ‘sexy dance’ as punishment for breaching coronavirus lockdown
Barangay captain Christopher Bombing Punzalan. (Kap Bombing Punzalan/ Facebook)
A Filipino politician reportedly tried to force LGBT+ people to kiss each other and perform a “sexy dance” in front of minors as a punishment for breaking a coronavirus lockdown curfew.
Christopher Bombing Punzalan, captain (elected chairman) of the Pandacaqui barangay (district), posted a series of now-deleted Facebook live videos of him confronting a group breaking the 8pm lockdown curfew.
According to Rappler, he particularly targeted the LGBT+ members of the group, asking them if they were out of their houses because they were looking for prostitutes
Punzalan then pulled three LGBT+ people out of the group and forced them to do a “sexy dance” in front of a 15-year-old who had also violated restrictions.
LGBT+ Filipinos forced to copy TikTok dances in bizarre punishment.
The punishments for the LGBT+ people continued to get more bizarre and humiliating, as the captain called in a Zumba instructor to lead the group in dancing to 18 songs.
One of the LGBT+ people being punished, 22-year-old Jesssica Mallari, said that they were forced to copy TikTok dances.
She added that she was then asked to kiss another queer person who had been detained, 20-year-old Shanel Salazar.
Mallari said: “They made us copy moves from TikTok but we couldn’t do it because they were laughing at us and we were ashamed.
He said if we wanted to go home, we would have to kiss.
“When we didn’t do it, he told us we had to do 20 push-ups. It was past 10pm.”
She added that they were only allowed to return home at 11.30pm.
Mallari continued: “We would like to say sorry for the disobedience. It’s okay to be punished but we cannot accept that it had to be documented live.
“If we just had to do community services, that would have been okay with us. Since we were caught and punished, we haven’t left the house.”
Captain Punzalan apologised for incident.
After the videos went viral, Punzalan apologised for the punishments, but attempted to defend himself by saying his behaviour was caused by “exhaustion”.
He said: “I would like to apologise for what happened last night, for those we punished for violating curfew. For those who were offended by what we did to the members of the LGBT, forgive me.
“We respect the LGBT community… Maybe that happened because of exhaustion from catching violators every night.”
Amnesty International Philippines said in a statement: “There is a heightened pattern of misconduct perpetrated by barangay officials when implementing quarantine protocols.
“Incidents of humiliation and abuse have been reported since the start of the community quarantine, such as putting curfew violators inside dog cages; beating up people with sticks; and, most recently, sexually humiliating members of the LGBTQI+ community.”
