MANILA (Mindanao Examiner / July 4, 2013) – Bahay Tuluyan, a member of the National Council on Social Development and chair of the Street Children’s Committee, has issued a strong support to the sentiments expressed by the Asian Human Rights Commission in relation to the then mayor of Manila, Mayor Alfredo Lim, interrogating and torturing a rape victim in full view of senior police officials, the victim of the crime and the media.
In a statement sent by the AHRC to the regional newspaper Mindanao Examiner, it said the Bahay Tuluyan strongly condemned the use of torture as a means of extracting confessions or investigating crimes.
It said Bahay Tuluyan expressed its shock at the open and brazen way that this torture was conducted by former Lim in full view of the media and condoned by those who stood by and did nothing.
In its 26 years of working with Filipino children, Bahay Tuluyan has all too often encountered police using torture against children on the street and children in contact with the law. This is despite the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Philippines Anti Torture Act of 2009 prohibiting the use of torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.
For many children on the street, violent treatment by police is the norm rather than the exception. Not only does this violence cause lasting injury, both psychological and physical, to the victims, but it also breeds distrust for law enforcement authorities, making it even harder for justice to be achieved.
While Bahay Tuluyan fully supports the efforts of the City of Manila to enforce the law and protect both children and adults from crime, it does not condone the use of torture as part of the investigation, prosecution or punishment of offenders.
Bahay Tuluyan also called on the Commission on Human Rights and the Public Attorney’s Office to thoroughly investigate this incident of former Mayor Lim torturing a suspect and to ensure those guilty of crimes are brought to justice. Moreover it called on the Department of Interior and Local Government to require all law enforcement officers to undergo human rights training on an ongoing basis.
AHRC has earlier demanded an explanation as to why the police did nothing to prevent Lim from interrogating and torturing a rape suspect in full view of the public.
It said in a report by the GMA News Television, about five policemen in uniform, including a senior police officer, were present in front of Lim as he questioned, extracted a confession and forced the suspect to admit he had raped a woman and attempted to rape and rob another.
Under the Anti-Torture Act of 2009, to inflict pain either physical or psychological for purposes of extracting a confession, information and forcing a person to admit to a crime is a criminal offence.
The AHRC said it was shocked, but not surprised, by the inaction of the police and of how Mayor Lim could openly break the law in front of the law enforcement officers.
The policemen, including a senior officer, by the uniform he was wearing, did nothing to prevent the mayor from torturing the victim. In a situation where a suspect is questioned in the absence of his legal counsel by an influential politician in front of senior police officers and journalists, it is likely that any suspect would admit to anything.
“We are of the opinion that there was no need for Mayor Lim to either extract a confession from the suspect or to force him to admit to the crime. As the report said, the police claimed to have sufficient evidence to prosecute the suspect for rape, attempted rape and for robbery. In fact, Mayor Lim’s torture of the suspect in full view of the public only damages the probability of successful prosecution because evidence taken by way of torture is not admissible in court. As a former policemen himself for 30 years, Mayor Lim should have known this most elementary rule of evidence,” it said.
The AHRC also demanded that the Commission on Human Rights and the Public Attorney’s Office, the two agencies who had the legal obligation to conduct an investigation under the Anti-torture Law, to conduct an investigation to determine the criminal liability of Mayor Lim and the policemen for, as it appears, tolerating and allowing Mayor Lim to torture the suspect. If Mayor Lim and the other policemen are not held accountable to this incident, this would aggravates and perhaps have irreversible consequences on the people’s loss of trust and confidence in the law.
“There is nothing unique and scandalous about Mayor Lim torturing the suspect and the policemen not doing anything to protect a detainee’s rights. In fact, it merely reaffirms what all Filipinos know about the systematic and widespread torture practiced during police investigations and questioning while the detainees are held in custody. If they could do this in open view of the public with impunity, there is nothing to prevent other ordinary policemen from using torture as methods of their investigation,” it said.
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