Dear friends,
The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has been informed that the regional office of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) in Cotabato City, has recommended the release of “immediate financial assistance” to a torture victim whose complaint of torture they had investigated. The CHR investigators also affirmed the accounts of torture the victim had suffered after interviewing him while he was in jail.
UPDATED INFORMATION:
In our previous appeal (AHRC-UAU-031-2010), we mentioned that the CHR did not comply with section 9 (a) of the Anti-Torture Act of 2009 that requires them to complete their investigation in 60 days from the time the complaint is filed. They began investigating the complaint of torture victim Anuar Hasim on July 27; two months after the case was first reported (AHRC-UAC-065-2010).
In a letter that the AHRC received on November 15, Jacqueline Veloria-Mejia, executive director of the CHR, submitted a copy of the report that CHR special investigators had completed of its investigation on Hasim’s complaint of torture. The report was signed by special investigators Mary Joy Bravo and Antonio Delposo.
In the CHR’s report, dated August 20, they did not challenge the accuracy of the facts mentioned in the previous AHRC appeals. The report also acknowledge that Hasim’s hesitance to speak to them when they first visited him on July 27 was due to his “fear and trauma in giving statements considering that in a previous incident, identified policemen had asked him to sign a document without his lawyer being present”.
The AHRC had earlier expressed concern that the CHR’s delay in investigating the complaint had given the policemen involved the opportunity to cover-up the complaint. The CHR, however, had affirmed that the policemen who forced the torture victim to sign a document on June 8 declaring “he will no longer testify in court about his complaint of torture” were Senior Police Officer 2 Argie Miraflores and Senior Police Office 1 Israel Lantingan.
The CHR investigators have already asked the court to verify whether or not SPO2 Miraflores and SPO1 Lantingan were given permission by the court to take Hasim outside the detention facility where he was held. When Hasim was taken out of the detention facility, the two policemen took him to the prosecutor’s office where he was made to sign a document withdrawing his complaint.
The report also affirmed that Ma. Antoinetta Odi, a government physician attached to the local health office, the General Santos City Health Office (GSCHO), did not conduct a proper examination on him on April 12 before his remand to prison.
The CHR’s report went on to say: “A lady doctor whom he doesn’t know entertained him. When she raised his shirt, she swathe contusions on his left chest. She asked “masakit ba? (Does it hurt?)” and when he answered yes she instructed him to go out of the room and called P03 Paulate (a police officer who took him to hospital). She did not get back to him anymore.”
In the conclusion of the report, the CHR investigators have recommended that “immediate financial assistance be extended to Anuar Hasim or his immediate family”. They, however, asked to be “given another time to probe further into the details of the case”.
Thank you.
Urgent Appeals Programme
Asian Human Rights Commission (ua@ahrc.asia)
