MANILA, Philippines -- It appears that there is practically no way of tracing a missing person arrested by state agents because the military and police do not document custody turnovers nor do they inform the families of the suspects, an investigation by the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) showed.

At Thursday?s public hearing to look into the five-day disappearance of activist Mohammad Diya Hamja in 2008, CHR chair Leila de Lima said the lack of proper documentation for arrests and turnovers could lead to cases of enforced disappearances.

Had it not been for Hamja's sandal, which his son Ahmad saw by chance inside an office in Camp Crame, he might not have been found.

Police said Hamja was turned over to their custody by the Naval Intelligence and Security Force (NISF) on December 2 after he was arrested in a joint military and police operation last November 28 in Maharlika Village in Taguig City.

Police Senior Superintendent Isagani Nerez, chief of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group-National Capital Region (CIDG) office, testified that Hamja was a suspected "terrorist" and alleged member of the Abu Sayyaf group facing a string of kidnapping charges in Basilan.

Hamja's family reported him as missing and later sought the help of the CHR and the human rights group Karapatan (Alliance for the Advancement of People?s Rights) after he was forcibly taken by armed men while on his way home after praying at the Blue Mosque.

An earlier Karapatan report described Hamja, who is in his late 40s, as a "human rights defender" and member of Hustisya!, an organization of relatives and human rights victims under the Arroyo administration, and the Moro Christian People's Alliance (MCPA).

According to Karapatan, Hamja advocated human rights issues after he was wrongfully charged by authorities of being an Abu Sayyaf member involved in the high profile kidnapping cases, including the Dos Palmas kidnappings.

He was detained for four years at Camp Bagong Diwa after the case was dismissed because, according to De Lima, none of some 60 witnesses presented by prosecutors identified Hamja as their kidnapper.

On Thursday, Nerez said Hamja's arrest was legal as the operatives had a warrant issued by a trial court judge in Basilan after he was charged with new with kidnapping cases, something De Lima said the CHR would have to verify with the Basilan courts.

However, Nerez admitted that his office did not have any documentary proof that Hamja was turned over by the NISF to the CIDG-NCR.

Nerez, a lawyer, surmised that one of his officers received a phone call from the NISF that it would be turning over Hamja to the CIDG-NCR.

"What kind of system are we dealing with here? I'm sorry to say that we find it appalling. We wouldn't know how many cases there are of suspects turned over with no proper documentation...No wonder we are unable to locate many of the disappeared," De Lima said at the hearing, as CHR commissioners Ma. Victoria Cardona and Norberto de la Cruz shook their heads in disbelief.

De Lima described Hamja's turnover as a "lapse in procedure" as indicated in the Philippine National Police rules of engagement.

She further told Nerez: "We hope you understand that we are voicing out our frustration. We have many cases of the disappeared. If they [Hamja's family] did not approach the CHR, who knows what might have happened to him? We are not saying that you planned to do something to him but that opens the door to this [enforced disappearance]."

Nerez replied: "I fully understand your reaction. It was never our intention to do violate the rights of Mr. Hamja and make him disappear that's why we made a report to our superiors informing them of his arrest."

Nonetheless, Nerez agreed with the CHR en banc that the procedure being followed by the police and the military when it came to turning over custody of suspects should be reviewed and improved.

Cardona told Nerez: "This is not just for the protection of the victims but also for the protection of police officers. You have to be very careful with the procedures because a victim can also accuse you of human rights violations even if you didn't do anything to him."

The CHR also ordered the CIDG to present Hamjas at Thursday?s hearing so he can testify on what happened to him during his detention but was told that Hamjas had been turned over to the Basilan Provincial Jail shortly before Christmas by virtue of a commitment order from the judge.

The police did not inform Hamjas' family or the CHR of the transfer, but presented on Thursday the documents to the CHR en banc.

Ahmad Hamja said he, along with Karapatan, looked for his father at the Southern Police District Office, the Taguig City jail, the PNP Custodial Center, and in the Police Anti-Crime Emergency Response (PACER) office in Camp Crame.

It was only on December 4 that Ahmad and the CHR team found him by chance in Camp Crame, at the office of Inspector Wilfredo Sy of the CIDG-NCR operations group.

Sy testified that he was part of the joint operating team that arrested Hamja on November 28.

"I saw a sandal on the floor and I immediately recognized it as my father's. And then I saw him. I became hysterical because he was so thin, his eyes were very red, and he had bruises all over his body. When I tried to embrace him, I felt a bump on his back. He said it hurt," Ahmad recounted in Filipino as he broke down in tears.

Ahmad said his father told him that after he was forcibly taken by men he did not know, he was blindfolded, beaten up, and subjected to electric shocks. Somebody also hit him with a steel bar on the back.

His father, Ahmad said, did not know who beat him up because he was blindfolded all throughout and was unaware where he was. Hamjas had also lost track of time, according to Ahmad.

"The little towel that he used whenever he prayed at the mosque was already torn because my father said it was also used during the torture," Ahmad said.

Dr. Joseph Andrew Jimenez of the CHR forensic division testified that he examined Hamja and discovered that the blood vessels in his eyes had ruptured and he had contusions and abrasions near his throat, both wrists, and behind his right ear. The doctor also found a wound on Hamjas? right ear.

"[Hamja] said he was tightly blindfolded and that tape was applied over the blindfold. He was blindfolded from the time of his arrest and it was removed only while on the way to CIDG. He also had a bruise on his back and said he could have fallen while handcuffed to the chair," Jimenez said.

Jimenez added that Hamja told him he was made to sit on a bench with his hands cuffed while he was being interrogated.

Nerez stressed that Hamja was turned over by the NISF bruised and wounded. He also acknowledged that "we failed to submit Hamja to a medical examination" but gave him some medicine.

Nerez said Hamjas was examined by a doctor before he was turned over by the CIDG to the PNP Custodial Center. He recalled that he had to convince the PNP Custodial Center to take in Hamja during the Christmas break because the CIDG did not have a proper detention facility.

De Lima said the CHR would set another public hearing and would request the Basilan judge to allow Hamjas to testify.

She added that team leaders of the arresting team and custodians of Hamjas from the NISF, the CIDG-NCR, the Naval Intelligence Security Group-NCR, and the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA) to appear in the next hearing.

Nerez later told reporters that "in reality," suspects have been frequently turned over by the military to the police (and vice versa) but stressed that the state agents have been working together "for the common good."

"We are also fighting for the rights of victims to find justice. We turned him [Hamjas] over to the Basilan jail because the wheels of justice must go on. That's part of the effort why we are here, to give justice to the victims," he said.

Nerez also defended the blindfolding of a suspect like Hamjas as a way to prevent him escaping.

He said authorities were not obliged to inform the families of suspects of their arrests. He stressed their arrests were covered by valid arrest warrants issued by the courts.

But De Lima, in a separate interview, said that authorities should remember to properly follow arrest and custodial turnover procedures.

"These are people we are talking about, not merchandise," de Lima said.