CHR asked to probe ‘secret prisons’ for activists

Commission on Human Rights INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

A rights group on Tuesday urged the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) to look into the possible existence of state-run “secret prisons” following the recent disappearances of activists and community organizers.

Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay said the state could be maintaining “hundreds of these secret prisons” where suspected dissidents were being brought in for interrogation.

She added it was possible that some desaparecidos under the Marcos administration, like former University of the Philippines Baguio student leaders-turned-indigenous organizers Gene Roz Jamil de Jesus and Dexter Capuyan, and peasant activists Elgene Mungcal and Elena Pampoza, were being held there.

If proven, state forces could be held liable for violating Republic Act No. 10353, or the Anti-Enforced or Involuntary Disappearance Act of 2012, Palabay reminded the CHR.

Under the law, state authorities should submit regularly to the CHR a complete and updated list of all detention facilities, with the agency authorized to make unannounced visits to these.

“We call on the [CHR] to stand by its mandate and initiate a thorough investigation of the state’s network of secret prisons and hold liable those found to be maintaining these prisons and/or holding victims of enforced disappearance in them,” Palabay said.

She made the statement after two “disappeared” youth activists, Patricia Cierva and Cedric Casaño, suddenly surfaced this week alongside 18 other “confessed rebels” who surrendered to Cagayan Gov. Manuel Mamba.

Karapatan earlier said that Cierva and Casaño were captured by soldiers from the 501st Brigade in Gonzaga town on May 18, and held for 15 days in a secret prison where they were tortured to surrender and stop opposing the government.

But their “surrender,” Palabay said, “does not in any way diminish the 501st Brigade’s liability under the Anti-Desaparecido Law for failing to disclose custody of Cierva and Casaño for 15 days.”

“Since neither Cierva nor Casaño is facing criminal charges, the 501st Brigade should immediately release them or be held liable for its continuing illegal detention of the two activists,” she said.

Their experience was similar to that of Cebu-based activists Dyan Gumanao and Armand Dayoha, who were also abducted by state forces at a Cebu port on Jan. 10, as well as Cordilleran activist Steve Tauli. INQ

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