Most torture cases in PHL perpetrated by police officers – report

Incidences of torture remains prevalent in the Philippines and most of the perpetrators are police officers, international human rights group Amnesty International said.

In a live interview on GMA News TV's “News To Go”, Amnesty International Secretary General Salil Shetty said the group's report, “Above the Law: Police Torture in the Philippines”, revealed that despite the country's five-year-old Anti-Torture Act, brutal and bizarre forms of torture are still being perpetrated by police officers mostly in police stations in the provinces.

“I think the results of the report were actually even more shocking than we expected. The (torture) practices are very well documented here (in our report)...The practice of police torture in police stations is very widespeard,” Salil said.

The 120-page report contains detailed accounts from more than 50 victims of tortures by the police as well as accounts from the victims' families.

The report noted that based on the records of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR), of the 28 cases of torture recorded from January to July of this year, 22 were perpetrated by police officers.

For 2013, Amnesty International noted that of the 75 torture cases recorded by the CHR, 60 were perpetrated by the police.

Shetty said the CHR even acknowledged that many cases go unrecorded as victims of police torture are usually afraid and intimidated from speaking up.

“We took the Commission on Human Rights complaints from last year and we looked at who are they complaining about, who are the accused, the majority turned out to be the police,” Shetty said.

Shetty said their report also shows that police have tortured political activists as well as ordinary people, including women and minors accused of petty crimes.

“These (victims) are ordinary people. It's not the suffering of only the political activists or extremists, ordinary Filipinos are being attacked by the police on a daily basis,” Shetty said.

According to Amnesty International, there were a total of 457 cases of torture recorded in the Philippines since 2001.

Various forms of police torture

Shetty said another notable thing tackled in the report is the police officers' attitude towards using torture against their victims.

“It's almost like [a form of] entertainment for them and they know they are going to get away with it,” Shetty said.

One of the high-profile police torture incidents Shetty cited was in January, when around 10 police officers at a Biñan, Laguna detention facility allegedly used a multi-colored roulette wheel called the “wheel of torture" to extract information from drug trafficking suspects.

Among the forms of torture allegedly employed against the inmates were "20 second Manny Pacquiao," which meant having to withstand being punched for 20 seconds, and the "30 second paniki," which meant being hung upside down like a bat.

Another horrible incident cited in the report was in 2010, when Manila police inspector Joselito Binayug was seen in a leaked video torturing a suspect of theft case.

In the video, Binayug was seen repeatedly pulling a string tied to the suspect's genitalia during interrogation. Binayug was arrested in April last year but is still awaiting trial.



Ironies

Shetty pointed out that it is ironic and shocking that while the Philippines is one of the first countries in Asia that achieved democracy, torture of various forms is still prevalent.

Shetty also said the country has many laws that aim to protect human rights and freedom of speech, and yet conviction rate for human rights abuses such as torture remain low.

“We need to remember that Philippines, on a regional and international stage in Asia Pacific, is seen as a sort of a progressive country, a democratic country, so, this (torture) situation obtained on the ground is really shocking despite having good laws,” Shetty said.

He said one of the reasons behind the continued prevalence torture in the country is the “weak criminal justice system”.

“Criminal justice system is not functioning. The police (officers) who are torturing are getting away with it,” Shetty said.

He pointed out that since the Anti-torture Act became a law in 2009, not a single accused has been convicted. “The should be a proper system of investigation and prosecutions leading to convictions,” Shetty said.

Recommendations

Among the recommendations made in the report is to strengthen the government's preventive measures against human rights abuses such as torture.

Shetty said this can be done by establishing an independent body who can regularly conduct visits and inspections of police stations and detention centers, “so they (government) can take action on a preventive basis.”

Shetty said this body can be the CHR, but noted that there is a need to further strengthen the commission's capabilities.

“The CHR is doing a great job. We work closely with them as well. The point is, they don't have the capacity. They have to have the right capabilities and should be made completely independent...So, it's not a question of just creating a new body. The important thing is, it has to be independent and it has to be capable, that's the point,” Shetty said.

Shetty said the government's mechanisms to address complaints of human rights abuses should be streamlined.

“Secondly, if the torture is still starting to happen, people need to be able to complain and it needs to be clear as whom to complain to,” Shetty said.

He pointed out that the country has from seven to ten complaint processing mechanisms that may confuse or intimidate those who may want to report abuses.

“Don't forget that the people who are being tortured usually come from very poor families, many of them children, shockingly. So you need a simple and an independent police complaint mechanism which you currently dont have in the country,” Shetty said.

“The fear of complaining needs to be removed. There is a need to make people feel more confident that when they complain there is independent way of investigation,” he added.

Finally, Shetty said the most important thing to curb torture incidents is not ensure the conviction of perpetrators by improving the country's investigation and prosecution system.
“We need to become a country which respects the rule of law. That's what we are expecting from the Philippines. Philippines can be a leader of human rights in the region. So we are hoping that there will be some concrete actions from the government next year,” Shetty said.

GMA News Online sought the reaction of PNP spokesperson Senior Supt. Wilben Mayor but he did not respond to our calls and text messages. — Elizabeth Marcelo/JDS, GMA News