CHR investigates alleged rights abuses in Cebu police station

MANILA, Philippines – The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) has dispatched field investigators to Cebu City as part of its independent probe into allegations of human rights abuses in Sawang Police Station.

CHR spokesperson Atty. Jacqueline Ann de Guia said the field investigators would get in touch with complainants, including the family of Ritchie Nepomuceno.

De Guia said Nepomuceno was one of the complainants who had contacted the commission, asking for an investigation into police abuses of detainees on charges of torture, rape, and extortion, and the existence of a criminal cell in the police station.

Nepomuceno was shot to the head by unknown assailants on Natalio Bacalso Avenue in Cebu City on Monday.

On the same day, Police Staff Sergeant Celso Lucero Colita, one of the accused, was reported to have shot himself on the same night of Nepomuceno’s death.

“We stress that women victims, as key witnesses, should be granted full protection from any form of retaliation or attacks to ensure that they exercise their right to participate in investigations and legal proceedings,” De Guia said.

“This is an important guarantee so that those aggrieved may ultimately pursue justice and accountability without fear from the perpetrators of human rights violations,” she added.

The CHR urged the government to conduct a swift investigation of the case since other complainants are vulnerable to violence.

Last month, 11 police officers of the Sawang Calero police station were charged with robbery, arbitrary detention, grave coercion, and grave threats at the Cebu provincial prosecutor’s office. They had been accused of stealing Nepomuceno’s valuables.

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