CHR asked to probe ‘illegal’ strip search at Camp Bagong Diwa
MANILA, Philippines — The cause-oriented group Kapatid has asked the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) to investigate the “abuse” allegedly suffered by the daughter of a detainee at Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City last Jan. 5.
Kapatid said it filed a formal complaint at the CHR on Thursday following the allegedly “illegal” strip search that was conducted by jail authorities on a woman identified only as “Cath.”
Cath was visiting her father at Metro Manila District Jail Annex 4 in Camp Bagong Diwa to bring food and art supplies when she was asked by a jail officer to sign a waiver and undergo a strip search.
READ: ‘Traumatic’ strip searches get 7 jail guards sacked
Cath pointed out that she had visited her father many times before and was never asked to sign a waiver.
‘Only women’
She also found it discriminatory that her husband and brother were allowed to go into the facility while she and her aunt had to go through a strip search first.
When she raised her concerns, “the guards replied that only women are subjected to a strip search because, according to them, women are better at hiding contraband than men.”
Cath added that she also felt “pressured” by the deputy warden to sign the waiver, who told her that the wife of another political prisoner had already gone through the same procedures. The wife later denied signing a waiver and undergoing a strip search, according to Cath.
Cath said she and her aunt, however, eventually relented, given her “strong desire” to see her father. She added they were also running out of time to visit her mother, who was detained in another jail facility.
As Cath was being searched, she said, “The back of my head ached from anger.”
“I was nearly in tears as I followed her (the searcher’s) instructions. I kept thinking, is it not enough that my parents were jailed due to fabricated charges that they have to step on my dignity too?” she added.
