(Eagle News) — Senator Panfilo Lacson criticized Philippine National Police chief Director General Ronald Dela Rosa for defending members of the Manila Police District who set up a “secret jail” inside MPD’s station 1.
Lacson said these policemen violated police procedures and should not be tolerated by the PNP chief.
The men and women were found packed into the tiny cell behind a wooden cabinet at a Manila police precinct on Thursday, sparking a public outcry, a police inquiry and the suspension of the officers at the unit.
But on late Friday national police chief Ronald Dela Rosa visited the police station to defend his men’s actions.
“As long as the prisoners were not tortured or extorted, it’s okay with me,” he told reporters.
Dela Rosa also accused the Commission on Human Rights, an independent state body which had made the discovery during an unannounced visit, of plotting to embarrass the government.
The detainees, since moved to a regular prison cell, alleged they had been held without charges for about a week and that police had demanded hefty payments in exchange for their freedom .
Dela Rosa rejected the allegations while urging the commission to conduct regular police prison visits instead of making a random one timed with an Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit that Duterte hosted Saturday.
Reacting to the PNP chief’s comments on the issue, Lacson said it was clear there were violations of the law done by the Manila police.
“Ewan ko nga kung bakit ganun naging comment niya. Plain view pa lang, kahit wala nang magbigay ng salaysay, kita na natin na may violation of law,” said the senator
Rights body chief Jose Gascon urged the police chief to refrain from making statements that he said would appear to condone an illegal act, such as running secret detention facilities.
“Otherwise, to do so further encourages the climate of impunity that perpetuates wrongful action because the wrongdoers are not held accountable or punished,” Gascon said in a statement.
CHR chief airs concern
“I am concerned that this may not be an isolated incident,” Gascon said, adding he was taking up Dela Rosa’s suggestion to undertake a “full review and audit” of all police prison facilities.
International rights monitor Human Rights Watch on Saturday also called on the Philippines to free all “unlawfully detained” suspects and abolish unofficial police lock-up cells.
“Secret jails may just be one more form of police criminality that has multiplied during the drug war,” the group’s deputy Asia director Phelim Kine said in a statement.
Manila police chief Oscar Albayalde has conceded that congested detention facilities are widespread.
After suspending the police officers involved, Albayalde also ordered police internal affairs service to investigate the detainees’ allegations. (Meanne Corvera, Eagle News Service, with a report from Agence France Presse)