CHR accuses military of denying right to visit jailed troops
By Thea Alberto
INQUIRER.net
First Posted 16:22:00 09/23/2008
Filed Under: Coup d etat, Prison, Human Rights
MANILA, Philippines – (UPDATE) The Commission on Human Rights has claimed that the Armed Forces of the Philippines denied the agency visitation rights during an ongoing inquiry on the conditions of detained soldiers in the foiled coup in February 2006.
CHR Chairperson Leila De Lima disclosed Tuesday that Lieutenant Colonel Iluminado Lumakad, commanding officer of the Philippine Marine Corps Headquarters Battalion, refused entry to the CHR composite team that included lawmakers from the House of Representatives last September 16.
De Lima said Lumakad did not allow the CHR team to visit the Presidential Security Group’s Dante Langkit and Lieutenant Berlinda Ferrer at Fort Bonifacio, despite assertions by the CHR of its constitutional right to visit prisoners.
She added that Lumakad admitted that there was a “written order” to prevent the CHR team from enforcing its “visiting powers.”
The visitation by CHR was part of its mission order, following complaints by the soldiers' spouses about conditions in their husbands’ cells.
"The AFP has a lot of explaining to do. They do not have any authority in any capacity to prevent the CHR from conducting jail visitations. We need not have clearance from the higher ups just so we could visit detention cells throughout the country. Our constitutional mandate is clearly stated and that is what matters most," De Lima said in her letter to Armed Forces Chief Alexander Yano last September 19.
"The incident appears to be incompatible with AFP's affirmed commitment to cooperate with the CHR," De Lima said.
However, De Lima said that during their first visit last June 25, they were allowed entry to the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines custodial center where Major General Renato Miranda, Colonels Orlando de Leon and Ariel Querubin have since been detained.
"The apparent inconsistency in the official acts of the AFP has put us in a quandary as to the true policy of the military with regards to according due respect to the visitorial powers of an independent constitutional commission," she added.
In the letter, De Lima asked Yano to "issue the necessary order or directive, enjoining your officers to accord respect to the Commission on Human Rights in the exercise of its constitutional powers."
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