CHR clarifies: There have been arrests but no convictions yet

CHR chairperson Loretta Ann P. Rosales. MATIKAS SANTOS/INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines—The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) clarified that arrest have been made against several human rights violators under the  present  administration of President Benigno Aquino III even as she said there has been no record   yet  of any conviction.

“Chairperson Loretta Ann P. Rosales would like to make some clarifications and correct your news report entitled ‘Not one human rights violator arrested or jailed – CHR chief’ that you posted on INQUIRER.net on 13 July 2012 at 10:32 a.m.,”  said a letter from the  chairperson’s office.

“What she (Rosales) said was that there has been no human rights violator convicted or jailed yet under the Aquino administration,”  it said.

“She is aware that there have been arrests of human rights violator made, as in the case of some of the police officers accused of torture in the Tondo torture case involving Police Senior Inspector Joselito Binayug.”

Senior Police Officer 1 Rodolfo Ong Jr. and Police Officer 1 Rex Binayug, the CHR said, were placed under arrest after they surrendered in April 2012.

“Thus, the correct statement is that there have been arrests but no convictions yet of human rights violators during the Aquino administration,” the letter added.

Binayug  and six other policemen were ordered arrested and charged in court  for allegedly torturing to death an arrested suspect, an act caught on video,  in 2010.

The footage showed Senior Inspector Binayug pulling on a string tied around the organ of a naked and tattooed man identified as Darius Evangelista—a suspected robber—as other policemen cheered.