Torture by Police, Forced Disappearance & Other Ill Treatment In the early years of the 21st Century, 2000 to
2025 gvnet.com/torture/Philippines.htm
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CAUTION: The following links
have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in the
Philippines. Some of these links may lead
to websites that present allegations that are unsubstantiated or even
false. No attempt has been made to validate their authenticity or to
verify their content. HOW TO USE THIS WEBPAGE Students If you are looking
for material to use in a term-paper, you are advised to scan the postings on
this page and others to see which aspects of Torture by Authorities are of
particular interest to you. You might
be interested in exploring the moral justification for inflicting pain or
inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment in order to obtain critical
information that may save countless lives, or to elicit a confession for a
criminal act, or to punish someone to teach him a lesson outside of the
courtroom. Perhaps your paper might
focus on some of the methods of torture, like fear, extreme temperatures,
starvation, thirst, sleep deprivation, suffocation, or immersion in freezing
water. On the other hand, you might
choose to write about the people acting in an official capacity who
perpetrate such cruelty. There is a
lot to the subject of Torture by Authorities.
Scan other countries as well as this one. Draw comparisons between activity in
adjacent countries and/or regions.
Meanwhile, check out some of the Term-Paper resources
that are available on-line. ***
ARCHIVES *** 2020 Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices: Philippines U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and
Labor, 30 March 2021 www.state.gov/reports/2020-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/philippines/
[accessed 3 August
2021] TORTURE AND OTHER
CRUEL, INHUMAN, OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT The law prohibits
torture, and evidence obtained through its use is inadmissible in court.
According to the Commission on Human Rights, however, members of the security
forces and police were accused of routinely abusing and sometimes torturing
suspects and detainees. Common forms of abuse during arrest and interrogation
reportedly included electric shock, cigarette burns, and suffocation. As of June the
Commission on Human Rights had investigated 27 cases of alleged torture involving
34 victims; it suspected police involvement in 22 of the cases. Impunity was a
significant problem in the security forces. Human rights groups continued to
express concern about abuses committed by the national police and other
security forces and noted little progress in reforms aimed at improving
investigations and prosecutions of suspected human rights violations. PRISON AND DETENTION
CENTER CONDITIONS Prison conditions
were often harsh and life threatening and included gross overcrowding, inadequate
sanitary conditions, physical abuse, and a chronic lack of resources
including medical care and food. NGOs reported abuse
by prison guards and other inmates was common, but they stated that
prisoners, fearing retaliation, generally declined to lodge formal
complaints. ARREST PROCEDURES
AND TREATMENT OF DETAINEES The BJMP helped
expedite court cases to promote speedy disposition of inmates’ cases. Through
this program authorities released 41,555 inmates from BJMP jails from January
to July. Nonetheless, pretrial detention in excess of the possible maximum
sentence was common, often extending over many years. Freedom House
Country Report 2020 Edition freedomhouse.org/country/philippines/freedom-world/2020 [accessed 15 May
2020] F3. IS THERE PROTECTION FROM THE ILLEGITIMATE
USE OF PHYSICAL FORCE AND FREEDOM FROM WAR AND INSURGENCIES? Authorities stated
in July 2019 that 5,526 people had been killed in Duterte’s
antidrug campaign as of June 30, 2019. However, human rights groups, drawing
in part from a 2017 police report of “deaths under investigation,” in 2019
put the number of related deaths at as many as 27,000. The victims include
civilians and children who were deliberately targeted. Convictions for
extrajudicial killings and other such crimes are rare, and Duterte has appeared to encourage the actions. The police and
military routinely torture detainees, and a lack of effective witness protection
has been a key obstacle to investigations against members of the security
forces. Investigate
humiliating abuses by local officials enforcing curfew Amnesty
International, 8 April 2020 www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2020/04/philippines-investigate-humiliating-abuses-curfew/ [accessed 12 April
2020] BACKGROUND In March 2020, a
news report stated barangay officials from Sta Cruz,
Laguna are facing charges after detaining curfew violators in a dog cage.
This was followed by a police officer caught on video beating up several
residents in Manila for violating quarantine protocols; the PNP responded
with an investigation of the incident. The most recent report was of a video
shared by a barangay captain asking three curfew violators who are members of
the LGBTQI+ community to do lewd acts as punishment. Torture victims
file complaint vs soldiers at CHR Karapatan, 2 March 2018 www.karapatan.org/Torture+victims+file+complaint+vs+soldiers+at+CHR+ [accessed 24 March
2018] Janry and Jerry were
abducted by elements of the police and military in Tagum
City, Davao del Norte on November 28, 2017 after being falsely accused as
thieves. After the Philippine National Police-Tagum
cleared the victims, they were turned over to the 71st Infantry Battalion –
Philippine Army, who brought them to the army camp where they were
continuously beaten for being alleged members of the New People’s Army (NPA).
They were kept inside an unmoving ambulance inside the camp for 8 days, and
were fed only a total of 4 days. On December 6, 2017, they were brought to a
mountainous area in Compostela Valley and were
thrown in a pit where the soldiers tried to burn them alive. The victims were
able to escape, after pretending to be dead, but Janry
already suffered third-degree burns. Jerry also has several wounds in his
body. The two were able to get back to their family and made contact with Karapatan’s regional chapter in Southern Mindanao on
December 12, 2017. AFP to probe
allegations of torture by gov't forces in Marawi Eimor P. Santos, CNN
Philippines, 18 November 2017 cnnphilippines.com/news/2017/11/18/Torture-allegations-soldiers-Marawi.html [accessed 18
November 2017] "They gave us
biscuits and we thought that we were safe. But then the master sergeant
arrived. Then they told us that we were ISIS. They beat us. I was beaten with
an Armalite [rifle]. They tied our hands and feet
with electrical wire. I was crying and they would not listen," Justin
said, as quoted in the report. Another civilian
the report nicknamed as "Joshua," said he was shot by a soldier despite
holding up a white flag, a symbol he was not from the enemy's side. United Nations
experts express concern over torture of children in secret detention
facilities and lowering age of criminal responsibility Organisation Mondiale
Contre la Torture (World Organization Against
Torture) OMCT, Geneva, 18 May 2016 www.omct.org/monitoring-protection-mechanisms/statements/philippines/2016/05/d23766/ [accessed 9 August
2016] The UN Committee
Against Torture (UNCAT) urged the Philippines to immediately close all
“secret places” of detention where people, including children, are routinely
subject to torture. It also called for the age of criminal responsibility to
be kept at 15 years of age, urging the Government to drop a bill aimed at
lowering it. The UNCAT, a group
of human rights experts in charge of assessing countries’ application of the
Convention Against Torture, last Friday announced its concluding observations
with regard to the Philippines’ over the last seven years. It expressed
concern about children deprived of liberty in unofficial detention centres. The World Organisation
Against Torture (OMCT) had beforehand submitted a report to the UNCAT providing
evidence of the existence of a “secret facility” run by the Malabon Bayan Police, in Metro Manila, where children –
some of whom had not even committed crimes, or only minor non-violent
offenses – had been electrocuted, heavily beaten, and arbitrarily detained
for lengthy periods. ‘Frustrated’
torture victim asks Duterte, court to hasten trial
of Palparan Janess Ann J. Ellao, Bulatlat.com, Manila, 31 May 2016 [accessed 8 August
2016] Torture survivor
Raymond Manalo is calling on both President-elect Rodrigo Duterte
and the Bulacan court to speed up the prosecution
of his abductors and torturers, including retired Maj. General Jovito Palparan Jr Manalo and his
brother Reynaldo, were hogtied and forcibly taken by
soldiers from their home on Feb. 14, 2006. The soldiers were initially
looking for their brother Rolando, a rebel returnee since the Ramos
administration. In their earlier testimonies, both recounted how they were
illegally detained in various military camps in Central Luzon and were
tortured and inhumanely treated. They escaped from a military camp in Pangasinan in 2007. ‘He
forced a mop into my mouth’: Sick police torture games go unpunished in
Philippines news.com.au, 12 June
2015 [accessed 21 June
2015] “HE TOOK a mop and
forced the dirty and damp rag at the bottom into my mouth.” “The police officer
asked: ‘Can you take my kicks?’ I said, ‘No sir’,” she said. “He then kicked
me so hard that I fell against the wall. He punched me continuously and hit
me with a wooden baton. He punched me in the stomach and slammed my head
against the wall.” The Filipina single
mother, a former police informant, had been at a Manila internet cafe when
officers pointed a gun at her and accused her of drug dealing — charges she
continues to deny. They punched and
handcuffed her and took her to headquarters, where she was searched and no
illegal substances were found. Then they tried to force her into a
confession. She was left in
such pain she could hardly move, struggling to breathe and vomiting for days.
When her sisters came to visit, she was warned not to say anything, and had to
meet them in a dark room under supervision. The following day
she was forced to sign a blank piece of paper and be photographed with money
and a sachet of drugs. Police continued to play sick games with the
32-year-old, trying to shoot a bottle balanced on her head and forcing
fingers into her eyes. Alfreda remains in
detention, awaiting trial Torture is endemic
in the Philippines, with reports to the country’s human rights commission
growing 900 per cent between 2001 and 2013. 'Abadilla 5' custodians charged with torture janvic Mateo, The
Philippine Star, Manila, 25 April 2015 www.philstar.com/headlines/2015/04/25/1447637/abadilla-5-custodians-charged-torture [accessed 14 August
2015] news.abs-cbn.com/nation/04/25/15/abadilla-5-custodians-charged-torture [accessed 12 January
2019] The 12 policemen,
along with SPO2 Edilberto Nicanor,
were also charged with nine counts of violation of Section 2(a), (b) and (f)
of Republic Act 7438 (Rights of persons arrested, detained and under
custodial investigation). The cases stemmed
from the complaints of the Commission on Human Rights, on behalf of the five
suspects charged for the killing of Abadilla in
Quezon City on June 13, 1996. The five – Rameses
de Jesus, Cesar Fortuna, Lorenzo delos Santos, Leonido Lumanog and Joel de
Jesus – claimed that they were tortured in order to confess to the assassination
of Abadilla, the former chief of the defunct police
Metropolitan Command Intelligence and Security Group. The new case before
the Quezon City court was filed after Graft Investigation and Prosecution
Officer Dyna Camba of the Office of the Ombudsman
affirmed an earlier Department of Justice resolution that recommended the
filing of charges against the police officers. Human
Rights Watch World Report 2015 - Events of 2014 Human Rights Watch,
29 January 2015 www.hrw.org/world-report/2015/...
or www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/wr2015_web.pdf [accessed 18 March
2015] PHILIPPINES POLICE USE OF
TORTURE
- Rampant police corruption seriously undermines the country’s criminal
justice system and exacerbates the problem of impunity. In January, an
investigation by the Commission on Human Rights implicated members of the
Laguna provincial police in the systematic torture of at least 22 inmates
that began in February 2013. The police dealt out torture in a secret
location using a spinning wheel like in the “Wheel of Fortune” game show in
the United States. At time of writing, 10 police officers implicated in the
torture had been dismissed from duty and faced prosecution, while several
others were being investigated. A November report
by the Department of Justice detailed allegations of torture by members of
the police in Zamboanga City against several suspects arrested in connection
with the September 2013 attack on the city by Islamist militants. Human
Rights Watch documented several instances of mistreatment of the detainees,
several of them children, as well as the militants’ use of civilians as human
shields. The government has not investigated the alleged abuses. Amnesty Report
Condemns Police Torture in Philippines Floyd Whaley, New
York Times, Manila, 3 December 2014 www.nytimes.com/2014/12/04/world/asia/report-condemns-police-torture-in-philippines.html?_r=0 [accessed 16
December 2014] The Philippine
police continue to torture and degrade suspects despite a national effort to
stem the practice, according to a new report from the human rights group
Amnesty International. The report, to be
released Thursday, details accounts of the police using electric shocks,
beatings, burning cigarettes, waterboarding and humiliation on suspects, with
some “being stripped naked and their genitalia tied to a string which was
pulled by police officers.” “Perpetrators of
torture continue to act with impunity, as if they are above the law,” says
the report, titled “Above the Law: Police Torture in the Philippines.” Five years later, no
convictions under landmark anti-torture law Amnesty
International, 10 November 2014 [accessed 29
November 2014] In November 2012,
President Benigno Aquino passed Administrative
Order 35, which sets up special teams of prosecutors across the country to
investigate cases of torture, enforced disappearances and extrajudicial
executions. Yet two years later, these teams are still only in the training
phase and it is unclear if they are present across the whole country. CASES -- The following
are three examples of the use of torture and the culture of impunity around
it in the Philippines: In August 2007,
activist Raymond Manalo escaped military custody after being tortured and
forcibly disappeared for 18 months. He and families of other torture victims
accused a military general of involvement in their torture and disappearance
in a high profile case. It was only in December 2011 when the regional trial
court in Bulacan province ordered an arrest warrant
for retired General Jovito Palparan,
and it took another two and a half years before he was arrested in August
2014. He is currently being detained under special conditions in a military
facility. In August 2010,
torture once more hit the headlines in the Philippines when a mobile phone video
of a man being tortured was broadcast on television. The man, identified as
Darius Evangelista, a porter and repeat offender, has not been seen alive
ever since. Investigators found that Darius was arrested and disappeared in
March that year, and that after he was tortured, fellow detainees witnessed
an order being given by the police to “finish him off”. The Evangelista
family filed a torture case in court in September 2011 – the first filed
under the Anti-Torture Act. More than three years later, of the seven police
officers charged, three have “surrendered”, the primary suspect has been
arrested (in 2013), and three remain at large. The trial is on-going. In October 2013, Alfreda Disbarro, a single
mother from Parañaque City, was arrested, tortured and
accused by police of being a drug dealer. In fact, she was an occasional
former police informant who wanted out from working with the local police.
Once police had taken her to their headquarters, they repeatedly beat her,
poked fingers into her eyes, and forced a mop into her mouth. Over the
following days Alfreda was in terrible pain. During
this period she was photographed with Php300 (US$7) and a sachet of drugs,
and told to sign a blank sheet of paper. Global Campaign to
Stop Torture - Focus on priority countries Amnesty
International AI, 2014 www.amnesty.ca/our-work/projects/global-campaign-to-stop-torture-focus-on-priority-countries [accessed 19
September 2014] Although the
Philippines Government has ratified the UN Convention on Torture it has not
been able to enforce its own laws and standards. Its constitution prohibits the use of
torture. Its revised Penal Code
criminalizes all acts of torture with corresponding penalties. Despite this, torture is rampant in the
Philippines, as is impunity for those who carry it out. Most torture
victims come from disadvantaged backgrounds and include women, juvenile and
repeat offenders. In addition those
who have been tortured fear reprisals against their families if they attempt to
use the law to bring the perpetrators of torture to justice. Torture in the
Philippines: In Summary: Stop Torture Country Briefing Amnesty
International AI, 13 May 2014 reliefweb.int/report/philippines/torture-philippines-summary-stop-torture-country-briefing reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/asa350022014en.pdf [accessed 19 May
2014] Amnesty
International has serious concerns about the widespread use of torture and
other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment in the Philippines.
State security forces including law enforcement officers continue to torture
suspects and prisoners. Justice is out of reach for the vast majority of
people who are tortured. And perpetrators are almost never held to account. Though confessions
extracted through torture are theoretically inadmissible in court, a lack of
forensics capacity means that torture is used in many cases as part of criminal
investigations, which largely depend on testimonial evidence. Prosecutions
frequently proceed slowly, as courts are beset by a backlog of years’ worth
of cases. And these failings effectively shield the perpetrators of torture
from prosecution and conviction: delay and uncertainty rarely lead to
justice. CASE STUDY: LAGUNA
-- TORTURE AS ENTERTAINMENT --
In January 2014, the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) in the
Philippines discovered a secret detention centre in
a residential neighbourhood in Laguna province.
Police officers there apparently tortured detainees as a form of
entertainment. Officers would spin a wheel to decide what method of torture
to use, often fired up by “drinking sprees”. The centre
was not included in the Philippines National Police’s (PNP) list of detention
facilities – in violation of Section 7 of the 2009 Philippines Anti-Torture
Act. More than 40
detainees – some with bruises and torture marks still evident on their bodies
when CHR staff discovered the facility – have since accused police officers
of torture, ill-treatment and extortion. At least ten officers are suspected
of involvement. KMU: Activists may
have been victims of police ‘torture roulette’ in Laguna Kristine Angeli Sabillo, INQUIRER.net,
Manila, Philippines, 26 January 2014 [accessed 28 Jan
2014] Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) on
Sunday asked the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) to further look into the
so-called torture chamber in Biñan, Laguna run by
the provincial intelligence branch (PIB) of the Philippine National Police
(PNP). The CHR on Friday
exposed the facility, after detainees, arrested on drug charges, complained
of torture and maltreatment. It said the detention cell found in the PIB
compound was not included in the official list of detention facilities. Television reports showed a “torture”
roulette specifying the kind of torture, as well as its corresponding amount
of time, meted out on a detainee. One
portion of the roulette said “30 seconds Paniki,”
meaning the person will be hung upside down for 30 seconds. Phillippines:
Human Rights Report for 2013 Asian Human Rights
Commission AHRC, Press Release AHRC-PRL-021-2013, Hong Kong, 8 December 2013 www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO1312/S00101/phillippines-human-rights-report-for-2013.htm [accessed 9 Dec
2013] On the occasion of
the Human Rights Day, 2013, the Philippine Desk of the Asian Human Rights
Commission has produced a 19 page report detailing the prevailing situation
in the country. This year's report
is entitled, 'License' to torture, kill and to silence the oppressed' and
gives numerous examples of the human rights abuses by the Philippine National
Police (PNP) and the armed forces. Such abuses include illegal arrest and
detention, disappearance of arrestees, torture and, in many cases, in order
to justify their illegal actions, the fabrication of charges. Rights groups
condemn torture of three Lumads, including two
children Anne Marxze D. Umil, Bulatlat.com,
Manila, 31 July 2013 bulatlat.com/main/2013/07/31/rights-groups-condemn-torture-of-three-lumads-including-two-children/ [accessed 31 July
2013] The arrest and
torture of the minors were strongly condemned by child rights groups CRC and Salinlahi Alliance for Children’s Concerns. “The CRC
condemns these multiple violations of AFP soldiers and its affiliated
paramilitary. These children suffered enough from the moment that they have
been illegally arrested and detained. But the soldiers did not stop, they
even tied up the children while they were beaten and kicked in their face, neck
and nape. BJ was burned by a cigarette in his lips and bullets were pressed
between his fingers while a barrel of a .357 pistol was put in Arturo’s mouth
while he was being beaten. The two also suffered suffocation after their
heads were wrapped with a plastic bag and they were branded as members of the
NPA,” Jacqueline Ruiz, CRC executive director said in a statement. Torture, human
rights violations still rampant in Philippines Mindanao Examiner,
Manila, 26 June 2013 www.mindanaoexaminer.com/news.php?news_id=20130626070809 [accessed 27 June
2013] mindanaoexaminer.com/torture-human-rights-violations-still-rampant-in-philippines/ [accessed 1 August
2017] A Filipino human
rights group has condemned the widespread use of torture and human rights
violation perpetrated by state forces in the Philippines. She said foremost
among these cases is the torture of security guard Rolly
Panesa, who was mistaken to be a top-ranking leader
of the Communist Party of the Philippines.
Panesa was badly beaten during interrogation
inside a military camp, according to Enriquez, adding photos of the man's
bruised and swollen face, including medical certificates, proved what he went
through. She said Panesa is still in jail for
nearly eight months now. On May 29, 2012,
Cesar Graganta and his two friends were walking in
Villa Hermosa village in Macalelon town in Quezon
province when he and his two companions passed by a group of soldiers who are
members of the 85th Infantry Battalion. The soldiers fired a shot prompting Cesar�s
companions to run. The soldiers took
Cesar and tied him to a tree for one and-a-half hours while they interrogated
him. Soldiers punched and kicked him, put a bolo against his neck, hit him
with a piece of bamboo, put sharp sticks into his ears, tied a rope around
his neck and pulled at it, pinched his nose with pliers and poured ants on
his body, Enriquez said. AMNESTY
INTERNATIONAL From an old article -- URL not available Article was
published sometime prior to 2015 TORTURE AND OTHER
ILL-TREATMENT Three years after
its promulgation, implementation of the Anti-Torture Act remained weak, with
no perpetrator yet convicted of this crime. Torture victims, particularly
criminal suspects, were reluctant to file complaints due to fear of reprisals
and lengthy prosecution. The court case of
Darius Evangelista, in which the act of torture and the identity of the perpetrators
were caught on video in 2010, continued. Seven policemen were accused, but
only two faced charges. The suspects were initially in police custody, but
according to the Philippine Commission on Human Rights, they went missing in
April 2012 and remained at large. ENFORCED
DISAPPEARANCES Enforced
disappearances of activists, suspected insurgents and suspected criminals
continued to be reported. In January, after
flying to Manila from Zamboanga City, farmers Najir
Ahung, Rasbi Kasaran and Yusoph Mohammad
were apprehended at the airport, allegedly by state forces, and were not seen
since. The authorities refused to provide lawyers representing the missing
men with closed-circuit video tapes or a list of security forces on duty at
the airport at the time of their disappearance. In October,
Congress passed the Anti-Enforced or Involuntary Disappearance Bill, after
more than two decades of lobbying from civil society. The bill, which
criminalizes enforced disappearance and prescribes penalties up to life imprisonment,
awaited the President’s signature to bring it into force. ***
EARLIER EDITIONS OF SOME OF THE ABOVE *** Freedom House
Country Report - Political Rights: 4 Civil Liberties: 3 Status: Partly Free 2009 Edition www.freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2009/philippines [accessed 11
February 2013] LONG
URL ç 2009 Country Reports begin on Page 21 [accessed 13 May
2020] The Muslim
separatist conflict has caused severe hardship for many of the 15 million
inhabitants of Mindanao and nearby islands and has resulted in more than
120,000 deaths since it erupted in 1972. Both government and rebel forces
have committed summary killings and other human rights abuses. MILF
guerrillas have attacked many Christian villages, and the smaller ASG has
kidnapped, tortured, and beheaded some civilians. Islamist militants are
suspected in a string of bombings on Mindanao in recent years. The escalation
of violence in the south in late 2008 displaced more than 600,000 people by
year’s end. Meanwhile, the communist NPA continues to engage in some
executions, torture, and kidnappings in the countryside, especially in central
and southern Luzon. In January 2008, the group carried out a significant
attack on a mining company. Human Rights
Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and
Labor, March 8, 2006 www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61624.htm [accessed 11
February 2013] 2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61624.htm [accessed 4 July
2019] TORTURE
AND OTHER CRUEL, INHUMAN, OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT – The constitution
prohibits torture, and evidence obtained through its use is inadmissible in
court; however, members of the security forces and police routinely abused
and sometimes tortured suspects and detainees. The CHR provides the police
with mandatory human rights training, and senior PNP officials appeared
receptive to respecting the human rights of detainees; however, rank-and-file
awareness of the rights of detainees remained inadequate. The TFDP stated
that torture remained an ingrained part of the arrest and detention process.
Common forms of abuse during arrest and interrogation reportedly included
striking detainees and threatening them with guns. The TFDP reported that
arresting officers often carried out such beatings in the early stages of
detention. The TFDP reported
15 cases of torture involving 32 victims during the year. A man arrested in
June by the AFP 65th Infantry Battalion as a suspected NPA leader alleged the
use of torture while he was in captivity. A CHR investigation confirmed that
the victim had signs of beatings on his back and black marks on his hand from
electric shock. The commanding officer of the battalion denied the
allegations. No case was filed before the courts. All
material used herein reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107
for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use. PLEASE RESPECT COPYRIGHTS OF COMPONENT
ARTICLES. Cite this
webpage as: Patt, Prof. Martin, "Torture by Police, Forced Disappearance
& Other Ill Treatment in the early years of the 21st Century-
Philippines", http://gvnet.com/torture/Philippines.htm, [accessed
<date>] |
