Posted by Belarmino Dabalos Saguing
12/07/2017 1122 EST
Arbitrary or Unlawful
Deprivation of Life
There
were several reports that security forces committed a number of arbitrary and
unlawful killings, including in connection with combat operations between
government forces and Muslim rebels in parts of the islands of Mindanao (see
section 1.g.). Killings of activists by security or paramilitary forces as well
as killings of judicial officials and local government leaders by
antigovernment insurgents continued to be serious problems.
The Commission on Human Rights (CHR), an
independent government agency, investigated 78 new complaints of politically
motivated killings involving 95 alleged victims during the year--a decrease
from the 87 complaints investigated in 2010. The CHR suspected personnel from
the Philippine National Police (PNP) were involved in 11 of the complaints and
the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) in seven others. Suspects in the
remaining complaints were members of the terrorist NPA, ordinary citizens, or
unidentified.
During the year the PNP Task
Force Usig (TFU)--responsible for investigating and monitoring killings of
media members, militant/labor activists, and foreigners--identified five new
cases of killings in 2011 (using different criteria than the CHR). Of the 166
cases of such killings recorded since 2001 and monitored by the TFU, 103 were
filed in court and prosecutors’ offices, 62 were under investigation, and one
was closed. There were no convictions of state actors during the year.
Disappearance
During
the year the CHR investigated seven new cases of enforced disappearances,
abductions, and kidnappings involving 30 victims, compared with 23 cases
involving 107 victims in 2010.
During the year the NGO
Families of Victims of Involuntary Disappearances (FIND) monitored four
reported disappearance cases involving four victims and members of the military
and police as suspects. As of year’s end three were found alive, and one was
still missing. Two victims had been in military custody and were detained at
provincial jails facing criminal charges, while the military reportedly
released the third.
Some
victims’ families asserted that courts and police failed to address adequately
their complaints concerning disappearances in which security force involvement
was suspected. A limited number of cases moved forward, and investigative and
judicial inaction on previous cases of disappearance resulted in low rates of
prosecution and conviction. Evidence of a kidnapping or killing is required to
file charges, and in many cases evidence and documentation were unavailable or
not collected. A Supreme Court rule enables family members of alleged victims
of disappearances or any person whose right to life, liberty, and security has
been violated or threatened to compel government agencies to provide statements
in court about what they know of the circumstances of a disappearance or
extrajudicial killing and the victims’ status.
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 were alleged to have
routinely abused and sometimes tortured suspects and detainees. According to
the CHR and reliable human rights groups, the use of excessive force and
torture remained an ingrained part of the arrest and detention process. Common
forms of abuse during arrest and interrogation included electric shock,
cigarette burns, and suffocation.
During the year the CHR
investigated 47 cases of alleged torture involving 56 victims, with police,
military, and other law enforcement officers identified as suspects, compared
with 46 cases involving 121 victims in 2010. During the year the TFDP
documented 21 cases of torture involving 27 victims and alleged that security
forces were responsible, compared with 35 cases involving 57 victims in 2010.
Reports continued that prison
guards physically abused inmates. The CHR and TFDP reported that abuse by
prison guards and other inmates was common, but prisoners, fearing retaliation,
refused to lodge formal complaints. Women in police custody were particularly
vulnerable to sexual and physical assault by police and prison officials. Human
rights activists believed suspected ASG and NPA members in captivity were
particular targets for abuse. Authorities sometimes punished police who
committed assault or abuse.
PRISON AND DETENTION CENTER CONDITIONS
Prison conditions were
rudimentary and sometimes harsh. Jails and prisons were often overcrowded,
lacked basic infrastructure, and provided prisoners with inadequate nutrition
and medical attention. Lack of potable water, poor sanitation, and poor
ventilation continued to cause health problems. During the year the Bureau of
Corrections (BuCor) and the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP)
reported 732 deaths in prison due to various illnesses, including
cardiopulmonary arrest and pulmonary tuberculosis. Some prisoners, including
women and children, were abused by other prisoners and prison personnel. The
slow judicial process exacerbated overcrowding.
The BuCor, under the Department
of Justice, administered seven prisons and penal farms for prisoners sentenced
to terms exceeding three years. During the year BuCor facilities held 36,295
prisoners, including 2,165 women. The official capacity was 17,719, resulting
in facility operation at 105 percent above capacity.
Arbitrary
Arrest or Detention
The law requires a judicial
determination of probable cause before issuance of an arrest warrant and
prohibits holding prisoners incommunicado or in secret places of detention;
however, in a number of cases, police and the AFP arrested and detained
citizens arbitrarily. During the year the TFDP documented 71 cases of illegal
arrest and detention involving 97 victims. The CHR tracked 27 cases of
arbitrary arrest involving 57 victims and 46 cases of illegal detention
involving 72 victims.
ROLE OF THE POLICE AND SECURITY APPARATUS
The Department of National
Defense directs the AFP, which shares responsibility for counterterrorism and
counterinsurgency operations with the PNP. In the AFP’s 2010 Internal Peace and
Security Plan, the government recognized that achieving lasting peace,
security, and economic development requires a “whole of nation” approach,
including increasingly transitioning internal security functions to the PNP.
The PNP leads internal security functions in most of the country, although the
AFP continues to direct security functions in regions with a high incidence of
conflict, notably certain areas of Mindanao. The DILG directs the PNP, which is
responsible for law enforcement and urban counterterrorism, but governors,
mayors, and other local officials have considerable influence over local police
units, including approval of top departmental and municipal officers and
provision of resources.
The 138,825-member PNP has
deep-rooted institutional deficiencies and continued to suffer from a widely
held and accurate public perception that corruption remained a problem. The
PNP’s Internal Affairs Service remained largely ineffective. Members of the PNP
were regularly accused of torture, soliciting bribes, and other illegal acts.
Efforts continued to reform and professionalize the institution through
improved training, expanded community outreach, and pay raises implemented in
June.
Civilian authorities generally
maintained effective control over the PNP and AFP, although the government had
insufficient mechanisms to investigate and punish abuse and corruption. From
January to August, there were 238 administrative cases filed against 238 PNP
members, including administrative officials and officers, for various human
rights violations. Of the cases filed, 54 were resolved, and 162 were
undergoing summary proceedings as of August. The PNP dismissed three
individuals in connection with these cases. The AFP Human Rights Office
continued to monitor and review alleged human rights abuses involving members
of the military. During the year the Human Rights Office investigated 59
reported incidents of human rights violations involving 18 AFP personnel and 24
units. Of these incidents, 22 occurred during the year, including four
concerning killings; five, torture/illegal detention/illegal arrest; five,
harassment/threats/abuse of authority; and eight, child rights
violation/occupation of schools. Investigations conducted for human rights
violations committed during the year resulted in four dishonorable discharges
and 10 personnel undergoing general court martial proceedings or hearings with
the Efficiency and Separation Board. Authorities filed criminal charges against
nine persons in connection with the February 25 killing of Elmer Estrellado
(see section 1.a.). During the year the Office of the Ombudsman, an independent
agency responsible for investigating and prosecuting charges of public abuse
and impropriety, received 344 cases involving military and law enforcement
officers allegedly committing human rights abuses; the cases included killings,
injuries, arbitrary detention or unlawful arrest, and torture, and most were
filed against low-ranking police and military officials. As of year’s end all
cases were under investigation.
The police and military
routinely provided human rights training to their members, augmented by
training from the CHR. In February the AFP began to overhaul the education and
training of individual soldiers as directed by its 2010 plan. The AFP also
continued to adhere to 2005 Presidential Memorandum Order Number 259, which
states that human rights- and international humanitarian law-related subjects
must be incorporated in all AFP education and training courses and undertaken
by all officers and enlisted personnel. Moreover, successful completion of
these training courses is required for recruitment, entry, promotion,
reassignment, designation, and foreign schooling.
The PNP maintained a network of
1,744 human rights desk officers at the national, regional, provincial, and
municipal levels. The CHR continued to note that senior PNP officials appeared
receptive to respecting the human rights of detainees, but rank-and-file
awareness of detainee rights remained inadequate. The Commission on
Appointments determines whether senior military officers selected for promotion
have a history of human rights violations and solicits input from the CHR and
other agencies through background investigations. A promotion can be withheld
indefinitely if the commission uncovers a record of abuses. Negative findings,
however, do not preclude promotion, and there were no reports of promotions
withheld on human rights grounds as of August.
ARREST PROCEDURES AND TREATMENT WHILE IN DETENTION
Citizens are required to be
apprehended with warrants issued by a duly authorized official based on
sufficient evidence and brought before an independent judiciary. However, there
were some reports during the year of citizens, including minor children, being
picked up by security forces without warrants and detained arbitrarily. The law
permits warrantless arrests and detention without charges for up to three days
for allegedly committing or attempting to commit acts of terrorism, but this
authority was not exercised.
Detainees have the right to a
judicial review of the legality of their detention and, except for offenses
punishable by a life sentence, the right to bail. The law provides an accused
or detained person the right to choose a lawyer and, if indigent, to have one
provided by the state. Authorities are required to file charges within 12 to 36
hours for arrests made without warrants, with the time to file charges
increasing based on the seriousness of the crime. Lengthy pretrial detention
remained a problem, due largely to the under-resourced justice system. The BJMP
released 14,163 inmates from January to November as part of jail decongestion
programs. Large jails employed paralegals to monitor inmates’ cases, prevent
detention beyond the maximum sentence, and assist decongestion efforts.
Denial of Fair Public Trial
The law provides for an
independent judiciary, and the government generally respected judicial
independence in practice. Corruption through personal connections and sometimes
bribery resulted in impunity for some wealthy or influential offenders.
Overall, the judicial system continued to suffer from a lack of sufficient
personnel, inefficient processes, and long delays. The Report on Philippine Extrajudicial Killings:
2001-2010 audited
pending cases and computed the average trial duration for extrajudicial and
enforced disappearance cases to be longer than five years. These factors
contributed to widespread skepticism that the judicial process could deliver
due process and equal justice. The Supreme Court continued efforts to ensure
speedier trials, sanction judicial malfeasance, increase judicial branch
efficiency, and raise public confidence in the judiciary. No judges were
dismissed or disciplined as of August.
TRIAL
PROCEDURES
The law
requires all persons accused of crimes to be informed of the charges against
them, have the right to counsel, and be provided a speedy and public trial
before a judge. Defendants are presumed innocent and have the right to confront
witnesses against them, present evidence in their favor, review government
evidence, and appeal convictions; these legal requirements were generally
implemented. The authorities respected defendants’ right to be represented by a
lawyer, but poverty often inhibited a defendant’s access to effective legal
representation. Skilled defense lawyers staffed the PAO under the Department of
Justice, but their workload was large and resources were scarce. The PAO
provided legal representation for indigent litigants at trial; however, during
arraignment, courts may appoint, at their option, any lawyer present in the
courtroom to provide counsel to the accused.
The law
provides that cases should be resolved within set time limits once submitted
for decision: 24 months for the Supreme Court, 12 months for a court of
appeals, and three months for lower courts. However, these time limits were not
mandatory and were not respected in practice. In effect there were no time
limits for trials. Government officials estimated that it takes an average of
five to 10 years to obtain a conviction and that the national conviction rate
was 20 percent. The system relied heavily on witnesses’ testimony and gave
relatively little weight to circumstantial and forensic evidence.
POLITICAL PRISONERS
AND DETAINEES
Various
human rights NGOs maintained lists of incarcerated persons they considered
political prisoners. Some NGOs asserted it was frequent practice to make
politically motivated arrests of persons for common crimes or on fabricated charges
and to continue to detain them after their sentences expired. The TFDP tracked
316 political prisoners and detainees as of year’s end, an increase from the
289 individuals recorded in 2010; the majority were pretrial detainees. The
BJMP reported 149 political detainees as of year’s end, a decrease from the 389
detainees tracked in 2010. The BJMP cited an increase in the number of released
political detainees and the transfer of detainees to BuCor prisons as reasons
for the decline in the number of political prisoners during the year.
The
government used NGO lists as one source of information in the conduct of its
pardon, parole, and amnesty programs. For example, the TFDP recorded 39
political prisoners released from prisons or detention centers as of August.
The
government permitted access to alleged political prisoners by international
humanitarian organizations on a regular basis.
Use of
Excessive Force and Other Abuses in Internal Conflicts
For decades the Philippines has
contended with a communist insurgency supported by a nationwide NPA presence;
armed secessionist movements in southern areas predominantly populated by
persons self-identifying as Moros; and violence from smaller, transnational
terrorist organizations (such as the ASG and JI) as well as from criminal
syndicates. During the year government forces killed a number of civilians
during clashes with these groups. Some citizen groups complained that the AFP,
in confronting the ASG and NPA, illegally detained citizens, destroyed houses,
and displaced residents. Clashes between the AFP and separatist MILF forces, as
well as incidents of interclan vendettas leading to violence (known as rido),
continued in central Mindanao and resulted in civilian deaths and the
displacement of thousands.
KILLINGS
Government
forces acknowledged civilian deaths in the course of their military operations
against the NPA, MILF, and other insurgent groups. During the year AFP
operations killed 166 insurgents (57 suspected NPA, 54 ASG and 55 MILF
members). The PNP reported killing 19 NPA insurgents in various operations from
January to December.
PHYSICAL ABUSE, PUNISHMENT, AND TORTURE
Leftist and human-rights
activists reported harassment by local security forces, including rape and
abuse of detainees by police and prison officials.
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