On torture and rogue cops and soldiers

Rogue cops - INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos


In its recent editorial, the Philippine Daily Inquirer stated that 13 cases of torture had been filed against members of the Philippine National Police and the Armed Forces of the Philippines since January 2009, citing the Commission on Human Rights. I doubt the stats. The unrecorded crimes committed by law enforcers cum law breakers surely outnumber the recorded stats. Victims do not report anymore to the police stations out of fear. If ever, they prefer to approach their catholic parish priests or protestant pastors.

The editorial stated: "...It is most likely that many more incidents of heinous behavior on the part of law enforcers have yet to see the light of day, because their victims simply chose to keep their mouths shut out of fear and concern for their well-being. And this, more than the sickening sight of the torture itself, is the point driven home by the recent video clip shown on TV of a Manila police precinct commander inflicting extreme physical pain on a naked and bound hold-up suspect he was interrogating."

World media, e.g. CNN, has reported on the Tondo video of a police officer torturing a suspect, focusing, of all places, on his penis...as if, the fantasies of the cruel officer, who projected an image of a macho man, depended on the pain he was inflicting on the suspect's private anatomy.

The editorial made known what ordinary Filipinos have been asking since time immemorial, thus:

1. "Why does it parade apprehended suspects before the press and TV cameras, violating these people’s right to be presumed innocent? That constitutional right overrides any public-relations need by the PNP, however acute, to buff itself up in hopes of convincing a skeptical public that it is doing its job."

2. "Why are suspects often allowed to be manhandled in front of the cameras by the victims, their relatives, the policemen themselves, or all of them together? The visceral need for retribution on the part of the victims is understandable, but it is not a license to brutalize suspects, or for the police to abet the acts of reprisal either by their participation or inaction."

3. "Why do many alleged shootouts announced with much fanfare by the PNP eventually turn out to be murkier and less airtight than they are made out to be? Many of these so-called gun battles that have led to the deaths of prized suspects with valuable knowledge of extensive criminal operations have spawned charges of rubouts and summary executions, the Ivan Padilla case being the latest troubling example."