We really have all the laws we need. It is enforcement we lack. As well as respect for laws especially (and terrifyingly) if one is a law enforcer. Abuse of power and authority have prevailed through the ages.
Way back in 1917, Act No 2711 of the Administrative Code already prohibited torture by the police:
“SECTION 2685. Maltreatment and abuse of authority. — Any member of the Constabulary who whips, maltreats, abuses, subjects to physical violence, or tortures by the so-called "water cure" or otherwise, any native of the (Philippine Islands) Philippines or other person, or who causes such whipping, maltreatment, abuse, or torture of any native of the (Philippine Islands) Philippines or other person for the purpose of extorting from him any confession or inducing him to give any information whatsoever, shall be punished by imprisonment at hard labor for a term not exceeding five years or by a fine not exceeding ten thousand pesos, or both. Final conviction of any such offense shall by and of itself constitute a dismissal of the offender from the Constabulary service and shall make him ineligible to any position of trust or confidence in the Government of the (Philippine Islands) Philippines
It appears that we have not progressed except now we have graphic evidence of such misdeeds. Only recently, a video came to light showing an alleged policeman apparently torturing a suspect.[1]
Even the Constitution has not served to deter the commission of this despicable offense. It clearly states:
“SECTION 12. (1) Any person under investigation for the commission of an offense shall have the right to be informed of his right to remain silent and to have competent and independent counsel preferably of his own choice. If the person cannot afford the services of counsel, he must be provided with one. These rights cannot be waived except in writing and in the presence of counsel.
(2) No torture, force, violence, threat, intimidation, or any other means which vitiate the free will shall be used against him. Secret detention places, solitary, incommunicado, or other similar forms of detention are prohibited.
(3) Any confession or admission obtained in violation of this or Section 17 hereof shall be inadmissible in evidence against him.
(4) The law shall provide for penal and civil sanctions for violations of this section as well as compensation to and rehabilitation of victims of torture or similar practices, and their families. [Article III]” (Emphasis supplied]
And to give teeth to the foregoing, we have REPUBLIC ACT NO. 9745 which is AN ACT PENALIZING TORTURE AND OTHER CRUEL, INHUMAN AND DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT AND PRESCRIBING PENALTIES THEREFOR” which became law last year.
This was passed pursuant to the state’s policy to respect human rights, including suspects, such that no person in custody shall be “subjected to physical, psychological or mental harm, force, violence, threat or intimidation or any act that impairs his/her free will or in any manner demeans or degrades human dignity,” to do away with secret detention places and to adhere to our international obligations against torture (Section 1).
The Act outlaws torture which is “an act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him/her or a third person information or a confession; punishing him/her for an act he/she or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed; or intimidating or coercing him/her or a third person; or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a person in authority or agent of a person in authority. It does not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in or incidental to lawful sanctions (Section 3).”
The enumeration makes one wonder who was able to come up with the list. And at the rate we are going, it even gives rise to an unfounded fear that some people may be using it as a reference just in case they missed something. The list goes:
“SECTION 4. Acts of Torture. — For purposes of this Act, torture shall include, but not be limited to, the following:
(a) Physical torture is a form of treatment or punishment inflicted by a person in authority or agent of a person in authority upon another in his/her custody that causes severe pain, exhaustion, disability or dysfunction of one or more parts of the body, such as:
1) Systematic beating, headbanging, punching, kicking, striking with truncheon or rifle butt or other similar objects, and jumping on the stomach;
2) Food deprivation or forcible feeding with spoiled food, animal or human excreta and other stuff or substances not normally eaten;
3) Electric shock;
4) Cigarette burning; burning by electrically heated rods, hot oil, acid; by the rubbing of pepper or other chemical substances on mucous membranes, or acids or spices directly on the wound(s);
5) The submersion of the head in water or water polluted with excrement, urine, vomit and/or blood until the brink of suffocation;
6) Being tied or forced to assume fixed and stressful bodily position;
7) Rape and sexual abuse, including the insertion of foreign objects into the sex organ or rectum, or electrical torture of the genitals;
8) Mutilation or amputation of the essential parts of the body such as the genitalia, ear, tongue, etc.;
9) Dental torture or the forced extraction of the teeth;
10) Pulling out of fingernails;
11) Harmful exposure to the elements such as sunlight and extreme cold;
12) The use of plastic bag and other materials placed over the head to the point of asphyxiation;
13) The use of psychoactive drugs to change the perception, memory, alertness or will of a person, such as:
i) The administration of drugs to induce confession and/or reduce mental competency; or
ii) The use of drugs to induce extreme pain or certain symptoms of a disease; and
14) Other analogous acts of physical torture; and
(b) "Mental/Psychological Torture" refers to acts committed by a person in authority or agent of a person in authority which are calculated to affect or confuse the mind and/or undermine a person's dignity and morale, such as:
1) Blindfolding;
2) Threatening a person(s) or his/her relative(s) with bodily harm, execution or other wrongful acts;
3) Confinement in solitary cells or secret detention places;
4) Prolonged interrogation;
5) Preparing a prisoner for a "show trial", public display or public humiliation of a detainee or prisoner;
6) Causing unscheduled transfer of a person deprived of liberty from one place to another, creating the belief that he/she shall be summarily executed;
7) Maltreating a member/s of a person's family;
8) Causing the torture sessions to be witnessed by the person's family, relatives or any third party;
9) Denial of sleep/rest;
10) Shame infliction such as stripping the person naked, parading him/her in public places, shaving the victim's head or putting marks on his/her body against his/her will;
11) Deliberately prohibiting the victim to communicate with any member of his/her family; and
12) Other analogous acts of mental/psychological torture.
The fact that we could enumerate such acts even with the laudable objective of preventing them shows the dark side of humanity. But the Act does not stop with torture and includes "Other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment" or “deliberate and aggravated treatment or punishment not enumerated under Section 4 above," inflicted by a person in authority or agent of a person in authority against a person under his/her custody, which attains a level of severity causing suffering, gross humiliation or debasement to the latter. (Section 3 in relation to Section 5)
Secret detention places, solitary confinement or other forms of detention where torture can be carried out are likewise prohibited (Section 7). This does not cover a hypothetical situation. In SECRETARY OF NATIONAL DEFENSE, et al. vs. MANALO, et al. [G.R. No. 180906. October 7, 2008.], the Supreme Court affirmed the issuance by the Court of Appeals of a writ amparo based on accounts relating to torture and murder at the hands of the military.
Freedom from torture and inhuman punishment is declared as an absolute right and invocations of war, emergency or instability cannot justify its use (Section 6). No evidence obtained using torture is admissible except against a person accused of committing torture (Section 8). And a victim is entitled to an investigation by the proper government agencies, to protection against harassment and threats and in order to give testimony (Section 9).
Typically, it is difficult to prove allegations of torture unless this has been attested to a medical practitioner. Under Section 12, before and after interrogation, “every person arrested, detained or under custodial investigation shall have the right to be informed of his/her right to demand physical examination by an independent and competent doctor of his/her own choice. If such person cannot afford the services of his/her own doctor, he/she shall be provided by the State with a competent and independent doctor to conduct physical examination. The State shall endeavor to provide the victim with psychological evaluation if available under the circumstances. If the person arrested is a female, she shall be attended to preferably by a female doctor. Furthermore, any person arrested, detained or under custodial investigation, including his/her immediate family, shall have the right to immediate access to proper and adequate medical treatment.” This serves to expand what rights are usually read to a suspect upon an arrest.
That actual perpetrator, those who cooperate and even superiors and commanding officers can be held liable. And this includes an officer who should have known about such acts by reason of his position:
“SECTION 13. Who are Criminally Liable. — Any person who actually participated or induced another in the commission of torture or other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment or who cooperated in the execution of the act of torture or other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment by previous or simultaneous acts shall be liable as principal.
Any superior military, police or law enforcement officer or senior government official who issued an order to any lower ranking personnel to commit torture for whatever purpose shall be held equally liable as principals.
The immediate commanding officer of the unit concerned of the AFP or the immediate senior public official of the PNP and other law enforcement agencies shall be held liable as a principal to the crime of torture or other cruel or inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment for any act or omission, or negligence committed by him/her that shall have led, assisted, abetted or allowed, whether directly or indirectly, the commission thereof by his/her subordinates. If he/she has knowledge of or, owing to the circumstances at the time, should have known that acts of torture or other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment shall be committed, is being committed, or has been committed by his/her subordinates or by others within his/her area of responsibility and, despite such knowledge, did not take preventive or corrective action either before, during or immediately after its commission, when he/she has the authority to prevent or investigate allegations of torture or other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment but failed to prevent or investigate allegations of such act, whether deliberately or due to negligence shall also be liable as principals.”
This includes accessories who profit from or conceal the crime as well as those who harbor the principals:
“Any public officer or employee shall be liable as an accessory if he/she has knowledge that torture or other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment is being committed and without having participated therein, either as principal or accomplice, takes part subsequent to its commission in any of the following manner:
a) By themselves profiting from or assisting the offender to profit from the effects of the act of torture or other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment;
b) By concealing the act of torture or other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment and/or destroying the effects or instruments thereof in order to prevent its discovery; or
c) By harboring, concealing or assisting in the escape of the principals in the act of torture or other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment: Provided, That the accessory acts are done with the abuse of the official's public functions.(Section 13)
The penalties range from reclusion perpetua, prision correcional to arresto mayor (Section 14). Torture is to be treated as a separate and independent crime and shall not be absorbed by any felony committed as a consequence (Section 15).
When will these abuses stop? We get to ask who will guard the guardians when they torture and sometimes even kill. And we can only turn for hope to the courts, minding its words in one case:
“This court is not blind to the suffering of the victim's family arising from his untimely death, but we are bound to uphold the constitutional rights of the accused. Let this be a stern lesson to the police authorities and to the prosecution to perform their sworn tasks with utmost regard to the mandates of the Constitution. Criminals cannot be apprehended, prosecuted and punished under the law by resorting to non-legal means. PEOPLE vs. PULGA, et al [G.R. No. 138045. March 14, 2001.]”
We cannot allow torture to continue to be the means for an end, no matter how laudable the latter may seem. It appears that we are all seeking shortcuts, looking for coerced confessions instead of gathering evidence and inflicting punishment even before trial or a conviction. There is no end that justifies the use of such means. And we become less human each time we get to allow or tolerate such acts.
[1] CHR launches probe on police torture video,
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