Bato: No other secret cells found

Philippine National Police Chief Ronald dela Rosa. AP

Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Ronald dela Rosa on Thursday said an audit of police stations conducted nationwide showed that there were no other “secret cells” like the one exposed by the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) in Manila last week.

Dela Rosa made the announcement a day after he told reporters that he had ordered an inventory of PNP detention cells across the country.

“All the regional directors reported to me that there were no existing secret detention facilities being maintained by their respective subordinate units,” he said. “So meaning, police stations, provincial headquarters do not have such a facility.”

The PNP chief earlier questioned the timing of the CHR when it conducted a surprise inspection of a Manila Police District (MPD) station in Tondo and found the secret cell. The discovery, which was covered by the media, was made on April 27 when the country was hosting the 30th Asean summit.

An irked Dela Rosa then described what the CHR did as merely “pakitang-tao” (just for show) and challenged the commission to check police stations daily. He also claimed that when he spoke to the secret cell inmates, they admitted lying to the CHR about the alleged extortion racket of the police officers who had arrested them.

On Thursday, however, Dela Rosa vowed to cooperate with the CHR on its plan to inspect police stations for possible abuses, and instructed MPD director, Chief Supt. Joel Coronel, to work with the human rights watchdog.

“(Coronel) himself will coordinate with the CHR so that they could help each other in their inspections,” he told reporters. “Whatever is the recommendation or finding of the CHR, we will take that positively and we will act on that accordingly.”

Dela Rosa also welcomed the planned Senate inquiry into the “secret cell” discovered at MPD Station 1 in Raxabago, Tondo. “I hope they can legislate a law that will benefit the PNP, particularly police stations that are overcrowded,” he said.

Earlier, the PNP chief came under fire for saying that he didn’t see anything wrong with the secret cell maintained by MPD-Station 1, then under Supt. Robert Domingo, if the officers did not torture or extort money from the detainees.

A CHR team inspected the station after receiving on a tip that drug suspects were being kept there undocumented until they could pay for their release. The secret cell was discovered behind a bookshelf at the station’s drug enforcement office. It was then holding 12 men and women who claimed that some of them had been in there for days without being formally charged or even recorded in the station blotter.

Meanwhile, the founder of Holy Eucharist Mass Action (Hema), a Church-backed movement calling for a stop to killings linked to President Duterte’s war on drugs, asked Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada to act on CHR’s discovery.

“We are called to protest and demand changes against the current ‘normal’ practice of allowing inhuman conditions to thrive in our neighborhood, in our communities, in our country,” Lina Araneta-Santiago said in a letter sent to Estrada on Wednesday. —WITH A REPORT FROM AIE BALAGTAS SEE