KARAPATAN calls on BJMP to rescind repressive memorandum

KARAPATAN decried a memorandum allegedly issued by Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) regional director JCSupt. Clint Russell Tangeres mandating jail authorities to closely monitor detained “suspected Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) members” for allegedly facilitating fund-raising activities using drug money to finance the electoral campaign of senatorial candidate France Castro, currently ACT Partylist representative in Congress.

The order was supposedly based on a Facebook post by Lt. Gen. Antonio Parlade Jr. maliciously alleging that Castro has been making the rounds of jails for this purpose.

In a letter addressed to Tangeres, a copy of which has been furnished the Commission on Human Rights (CHR), Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay lambasted the “blatant violation of domestic and international human rights instruments.”

“It violates the right to privacy and human dignity as enshrined in Article III Section 3 of the Philippine Constitution as well as Article 17 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). It likewise contravenes with the right to presumption of innocence, which is protected under Article 3 Section 12 of the Constitution and Article 14 of the ICCPR. Rules 58 and 61 of the Mandela Rules also specify the prisoners’ rights to communicate with their lawyers and loved ones, without the arguably invasive protocols specified in the memorandum,” she said.

“Being red-tagged while under state custody doubly poses serious threats to the political prisoners’ life and security,” said Palabay. She cited a case where a political prisoner was abducted in a jail facility in Batangas, saying the incident may well have been facilitated and organized by jail officials in cahoots with the military. She likewise cited a case where the wife of a political prisoner was arrested after jail officers planted evidence on her personal belongings.

The BJMP memorandum also calls for stricter visitor screening procedures, including background checks and approval protocols. Palabay said cavity and body searches of visiting families and friends and other forms of civil liberties violations have been hampering the exercise of prisoners’ rights to access their loved ones.

And yet, she noted, military agents are allowed to frequent jails, and have easy access to political prisoners without their consent. “These military agents often threaten or harass political prisoners in order to coerce them to ‘surrender’ or become witnesses and even to take plea bargains,” said Palabay.

Palabay urged a stop to the impositions mandated by the memorandum for being in “dire violation of domestic and international protocols” on human rights.

*Copy of the letter is available upon request.