CAT/C/PHL/CO/2
Page 3
C.
Principal subjects of concern and recommendations
Torture and ill-treatment and insufficient safeguards during police detention
7.
Notwithstanding the assurances provided by the State party to the Committee that
“torture or ill-treatment on suspects or detainees is not tolerated or condoned by the Philippine
National Police (PNP) and that erring PNP personnel are dealt with accordingly”, the Committee
is deeply concerned about the numerous, ongoing, credible and consistent allegations,
corroborated by a number of Filipino and international sources, of routine and widespread use of
torture and ill-treatment of suspects in police custody, especially to extract confessions or
information to be used in criminal proceedings. Furthermore, despite the enactment of the Law
on the Rights of Persons Arrested, Detained or under Custodial Investigation (RA 7438), there
are insufficient legal safeguards for detainees in practice, including:
(a)
Failure to bring detainees promptly before a judge, thus keeping them in
prolonged police custody;
(b)
Absence of systematic registration of all detainees, including minors, and failure
to keep records of all periods of pre-trial detention; and
(c)
Restricted access to lawyers and independent doctors and failure to notify
detainees of their rights at the time of detention, including their rights to contact family members
(arts. 2, 10 and 11).
As a matter of urgency, the State party should take immediate steps to prevent acts
of torture and ill-treatment throughout the country and to announce a policy of
total elimination in respect of any ill-treatment or torture by State officials.
As part of this, the State party should implement effective measures promptly to
ensure that all detainees are afforded, in practice, all fundamental legal safeguards
from the very outset of their detention. These include, in particular, the right to
have access to a lawyer and an independent medical examination, to notify a
relative, and to be informed of their rights at the time of detention, including about
the charges laid against them, as well as to appear before a judge within a time limit
in accordance with international standards. The State party should also ensure that
all suspects under criminal investigation, including minors, are included in a central
register which functions effectively.
The State party should also reinforce its training programmes for all law
enforcement personnel, including all members of the judiciary and prosecutors, on
the absolute prohibition of torture, as the State party is obliged to carry out such
training under the Convention. Moreover, it should keep under systematic review
interrogation rules, instructions, methods and practices with a view to preventing
cases of torture.
Extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances
8.
The Committee notes the efforts undertaken by the State party in respect of extrajudicial
killings, including the establishment, in 2006, of the independent Commission to Address Media
and Activist Killings (the Melo Commission) and various coordination and investigative task
forces, including the Task Force USIG. However, the Committee expresses its grave concern at
the number of such killings that have occurred in the past years and at reports that, although the