CHR calls on Robredo, PNP to put a stop to hazing

MANILA, Philippines—Disgusted and disappointed over the purported hazing of police recruits caught vividly on video, the Commission on Human Rights has asked Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo and the Philippine National Police leadership to investigate and put a stop to it.

CHR chairperson Loretta Rosales lamented that the “abhorrent” acts of hazing—which included smearing red chili extracts on the recruits’ genitals as they screamed in pain and having them chew on ground red chili pepper—would just institutionalize violence and create a vicious cycle of abuse.

Rosales, in a briefing with reporters, said the recruits subjected to hazing would commit the same acts of violence against newer trainees, and the practice could also lead them to commit abuse against crime suspects.

Rosales has sent copies of the hazing videos, which she said was committed in the PNP’s Camp Eldridge in Laguna, to Robredo, who chairs the National Police Commission. She also sent him a letter asking him to shatter the police culture of hazing and to get the PNP to be true to its proclamation of putting a primacy on human rights.

The videos, which were aired during a press conference Wednesday, showed bare-chested police recruits being asked to pull down their shorts as men spread what was identified as red chili extracts on their groin, anus and underarms. The recruits could be heard screaming in pain.

Another video showed recruits, in green fatigue uniforms, being made to chew red chili pepper and to drink water mixed with the chili. Next, they were made to lick a flagpole bearing the logo of the Regional Public Safety Battalion.

Rosales said she got the video from a source who sent her a compact disk last July 28 along with a letter about it. She said the person who sent the CD was most likely the same one who sent her an e-mail in March alleging that hazing was being done in police training camps, and imploring her to intervene lest something worse happen to the trainees.

“The video itself is sufficient to say that human rights violations have been committed,” Rosales told reporters, adding that it could not be denied that hazing is done on a systemic scale, at least in Camp Eldridge.

Rosales said the CHR would also look into the incident, but that she wants the PNP and Robredo to take action on it.

In her letter to Robredo, Rosales said the CHR was condemning the “inhumane” acts committed in one of the PNP’s official camps.

She said the PNP would be unable to fulfill its mandate properly if it engages in such practices.

“The police can neither protect human rights nor uphold the rule of law if the senior police officers are the first ones to transgress them, with the police recruits as their first victims and the police camps their torture training grounds,” Rosales said.

Rosales added that the continuous practice of hazing would reinforce past practices and glorify torture and coercion.

“They inculcate an inhuman mindset among the young. They institutionalize violence and impunity,” she said.

The CHR chief also said the police’s declaration that they are veering away from previous policies and are now focused on upholding human rights and adhering to the rule of law needs to be practiced and not just said.

They should start by ending hazing, she said.

“If we do not do so now, we will be allowing our PNP training camps to become the breeding ground of the same malevolent mentality and brutal behavior that led to former Manila Police Precinct Commander Joselito Binayug to commit acts of torture against a suspected snatcher,” Rosales said, referring the police official who was allegedly caught on video abusing a crime suspect.

The video drew intense condemnation, and the torture of the man in it was the first torture case reported under the Aquino administration.