CHR to PNP: Probe ‘tanim-baril’ vs detainee’s kin

This photo taken on June 8, 2021, shows the facade of the Commission on Human Rights office in Quezon City. INQUIRER / NIÑO JESUS ORBETA

The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) urged the Philippine National Police on Tuesday to investigate the alleged framing of a detained activist’s wife who was arrested after a gun was found in her possession.

According to rights group Karapatan, Pertinisa Jereula Charita visited on Feb. 13 her husband Leon at the San Carlos City Jail in Negros Oriental where he has been detained for over four years on charges of illegal possession of firearms and explosives.

Charita, who was with her children and grandchildren, was there to celebrate Leon’s birthday. But while she was undergoing the regular search procedure, the guards claimed they found a .22-caliber pistol inside her bag.

“The Commission urges the Philippine National Police to look into this matter. We echo the call of Kapatid that the arrest of Pertinisa Charita should be further evaluated and determine whether other angles also exist in the said incident,” the CHR said in a statement.

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It added that it was already conducting its own investigation of the matter through its Region 6 office as it said that it was open to providing legal assistance if needed.

‘No logical reason’

Kapatid, a group composed of relatives of political prisoners, said there was “no logical reason” for Charita to jeopardize her own freedom by bringing a gun to a jail when she was only there to celebrate her husband’s birthday.

The group claimed the gun was planted as part of a “modus operandi to harass the families of political prisoners.”

Charita was one of the people United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression and Opinion Irene Khan spoke to in Visayas during the latter’s official visit to the Philippines last January to look into the nationwide situation regarding the rights to freedom of opinion and expression.

Karapatan said that Leon was a member of the National Federation of Sugar Workers. He was arrested at a police checkpoint in the city with seven of his fellow activists in September 2019 for alleged illegal possession of firearms and explosives. INQ