UPDATE (Philippines): Man forced to falsely charge labour leader following threats of torture

Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received further information about the signing of a confession falsely charging Jaime Rosios (a.k.a. Jimmy), a labour leader who was abducted and has disappeared since August 11. Alex Magbanua was threatened by police that he would be tortured and killed if he refused to sign the document. He claimed he was instructed to implicate his three fellow workers to the August 3 bomb blast as his supposed accomplices. He was also deceived into believing that he would be released and exonerated from charges if he  cooperates.

UPDATED INFORMATION: (Based on the information received from the Task Force Detainees of the Philippines (TFDP-Mindanao with the victim))

As mentioned in our previous appeal UA-281-2007, the extrajudicial confession of Alex Dalipe Magbanua (19), a janitor at the Yellow Bus Line Inc., has been used by the police in filing murder charges against him and his three other fellow workers namely: labour leader Jimmy Rosios and his fellow union members Jessie Rivas and Ebrahim Bacal.

Rosios’ forcible abduction and subsequent disappearance on August 11 took place following the extrajudicial confession Magbanua has made with the police.

On August 7, at around 9:00pm, Magbanua was inside their house with his mother. When he was about to go to bed, he heard a person calling for him. When he went outside their house, it was their company guard, Totong Argonillo, who was calling him. He was told that he has been summoned by their company’s chief security guard to his office. Together with Argonillo were six police officers in a gray service utility vehicle, Tamaraw FX model, which was parked nearby. The policemen were wearing blue uniforms.

Magbanua was surprised because he was instead taken to the Koronadal City Police Office (KCPO) and not to their chief security guard’s office. When they arrived at the police station, he was instructed to give statements regarding the August 3 bomb blast that happened inside their bus company’s terminal. He, however, pleaded innocence and that he had no knowledge about this incident.

Shortly Magbanua was taken by a police officer inside a room where they started interrogating him. There were four persons inside the room, who were police officers but were not in police uniforms, involved in questioning the victim. They threatened that he would be tortured and killed if he refused to confess that he was the one who placed a rack sack bag containing a bomb which exploded inside the bus. They also threatened to electrocute him. One of them pulled out a gun from his waist to frighten him. The policemen only stop interrogating him at 4:00am the following day, August 8.

Once again, later that day until August 9, the policemen subjected him to questioning and put him in a police lineup together with other twelve persons inside the police station. While they were lining up, a woman wearing sunglasses with face covered with handkerchief appeared. She identified him supposedly as the one who carried a sky blue rack sack bag which explodes. He supposedly placed it at the last row seats of the bus where her husband was also seating. After he was identified by the woman, the police then told him: “since somebody pointed you as the one responsible for the bombing then you will [have to] own the bombing”.

Magbanua was subsequently forced to confess into what is being accused of him. The police have also shown him some pictures of his fellow workers at the Yellow Bus Line Inc. (YBL). He was forced to identify three of them – Rosios, Bacal and Rivas – as his supposed accomplices. He was also told that if he confirms their involvement he would not be imprisoned and would be released. The threats and promises the police made had forced him into agreeing in doing so.

At 10:00pm that day his uncle went to the police station after he was summoned by the policemen from the same police station. Inside the police station, he met the chief of the police, the city’s vice mayor and the bus company’s assistant operation manager. But he was told by the vice mayor that he could not do anything to help his nephew because he had already confessed owning up the bomb blast.

On August 10, Magbanua had to sign an extra-judicial confession. He, however, was not properly informed of its content nor was it translated to him into a dialect he could understand. Even though the policemen provided legal counsel to him – the lawyer, Sunga, from the Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) – the latter was unable to adequately help him. Sunga arrived only after he had finish signing the extrajudicial confession.

On that day, Magbanua’s uncle once again went back to the police station at 1:00pm, however the policemen did not allow him to enter the area where his nephew was held. He was told his nephew was still being subjected questioning at that time. At 3:00pm lawyer Sunga from PAO, was seen to be present for about half an hour.

From August 10 to 11 Magbanua had also been admitted to the hospital. On August 11 he was taken to the Prosecutor’s office for inquest. He was not accompanied though by a legal counsel of his own choice, nor by the lawyer from PAO, which was earlier afforded to him by the police. According to Magbanua, he did not understand anything during the inquest at the prosecutor’s office. The questions being asked on him there were in English and that they did not translate them into a dialect he could understand.

On August 12, Magbanua was remanded to the Koronadal Provincial and Rehabilitation Center where he is presently detained. Records from the prosecutor’s office revealed he and other respondents have been charged by the police for “Murder with Frustrated Murder and Destructive Arson in Relation to RA 9372 otherwise known as Human Security Act of 2007” for the bomb blast.

However, it was learned that the prosecutors have instead resolved to file charges of Arson against Magbanua and other respondents. The charged of murder, which resulted to the death of a person during the bomb blast, has also been absorbed into charges of arson. In the resolution, the charges for violation of RA 9372 were no longer included.

When interviewed on September 20, Magbanua said that he is willing to testify and sign another confession to recant the extrajudicial confession he has earlier signed. He said the extrajudicial confession he signed are statements by the police he was forced into signing.

SUGGESTED ACTION:
Please write letters to authorities concerned requesting for their appropriate intervention. An inquiry must be conducted into the victim’s claim regarding the threats made by the police on him. The policemen involved must also be investigated to answer the allegations against them. The charges filed against the respondents must be withdrawn.

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