Robredo on hazing: Like training of terrorists

Video of rookie police while being subjected to hazing. Video from the Commission on Human Rights

MANILA, Philippines—A training worthy of terrorists.

Interior Secretary Jesse M. Robredo gave this description of the hazing videos of police recruits at a Laguna camp that surfaced recently, as he vowed “immediate accountability” on the part of everyone involved.

“It was like a training for terrorists…. I think it’s barbaric. What happened went beyond any measure of skill, courage and ability,” he said in an interview at Camp Crame, headquarters of the Philippine National Police in Quezon City.

Robredo said he had ordered the PNP, the Bureau of Fire Protection and the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology to institute measures to ensure compliance with anti-hazing and anti-torture laws.

Fifteen policemen and two of their superiors have been sacked and placed under restrictive custody over the videos showing the trainers subjecting a group of recruits to hazing.

The clips presented to the Commission Human Rights showed the recruits being forced to eat mouthfuls of chillies and their genitals smeared with chili-laced water, causing them to cry out in pain.

An initial probe indicated that the videos were taken in 2010 at Camp Eldridge in Los Baños involving Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon) police officers undergoing the PNP’s Special Counter-Insurgency Operation Unit Training course.

Commission on Human Rights chair Loretta Rosales said in a radio interview Friday she had received information the videos  were taken in March 2011.

Robredo also broached the possibility of asking the camp director for an explanation how such a thing could happen under his command, although the focus now was to punish those directly responsible.

He added that surprise inspections of the training sessions would also help discourage the practice.

Robredo said training for law enforcers must keep a balance between preparing them for real world situations and not resorting to abusive behavior.

“If something like this is done to you, you may start believing that’s part of training. This will only perpetuate itself unless we stop it,” Robredo said.

He said physical fitness was necessary to the training of police trainees, but he could not see how eating chili peppers could possibly be of any relevance.