MANILA, Philippines—Over a thousand unresolved human rights cases may now be resolved following President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s signing of the Anti-torture Law early this week.
Republic Act 9745, or the Anti-Torture Act of 2009, criminalizes “torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment.”
The new statute also put emphasis on the command responsibility of superiors over the acts committed by their subordinates.
In a statement on Saturday, Senator Francis Escudero urged torture victims and their heirs to use the law to seek justice.
“This development is a significant milestone in our efforts to address this country’s human rights violations, particularly the use of torture by agents of government,” said Escudero, the law's principal author and chair of the Senate committee on justice and human rights.
Numerous cause-oriented groups and organizations have documented hundreds of cases where members of left-leaning political groups and the clergy as well as outspoken activists and journalists were either kidnapped or killed since 2001.
More than 1,000 cases of torture have also been recorded, said Escudero.
A number of cases of extrajudicial killings, torture and harassment have been blamed on the police and the military, but families of victims have complained that no one has been prosecuted yet.
“Clean up your act,” said Escudero, urging the Arroyo administration to resolve these human rights violations that have cropped up in the last eight years.
Escudero said that his colleagues in the House of Representatives and the Senate committee on justice, as well as human rights and people’s organizations, also played an important part in having the bill made into law.
He noted that for years, the bill had languished in the legislative mill although the Philippines was a signatory to the United Nations Convention Against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.
The measure actually took 22 years in Congress before it was passed.
“The enactment of R.A. 9745 is a concrete step towards fulfilling our commitment to an agreement we signed over two decades ago. More importantly, this law now gives our people another shield against human rights abuses,” said Escudero.
The senator said that from the dawn of Martial Law to this very day, many Filipinos have suffered because of their political beliefs.
“Under this administration alone, political activists have been tortured and have had to seek the protection of our courts against these abuses. With this new law on their side, the hope is that this will pave the way for the conviction and imprisonment of their perpetrators, and discourage those planning to use it,” he said.
Press Secretary Cerge Remonde had said that the signing of the anti-torture bill was “a concrete demonstration of this administration's commitment to human rights."
Under the law, the Commission on Human Rights will see through its implementation and, together with the Department of Justice and in consultation with human rights groups, it will draft the implementing rules and regulations.
The law prescribes penalties up to life imprisonment for torture.
The law defines torture as acts consisting of systematic beating, food deprivation, electric shock, cigarette burning, rape, among others. Mental and psychological torture, meanwhile, refers to acts such as blindfolding, prolonged interrogation, maltreating a member or members of a person's family, and denial of sleep, among others.
Wars, political instability and other public emergencies could not be invoked as a justification for torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading forms of treatment or punishment, it says.
