CHR finds police response
to Bicutan siege ‘excessive’

SAYING they had used “excessive force” and violated the basic rights of the inmates to life and dignity, the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) has recommended that police officers be criminally investigated for their assault on a prison in Camp Bagong Diwa in March last year in response to an attempted escape by some members of the Abu Sayyaf.

In a report on its investigation of the siege at the Metro Manila District Jail, the CHR said the police assault was “exceedingly not proportionate” to the force used by the prisoners who attempted to escape. Moreover, said the CHR, there were inmates who were not involved in the failed escape but were hunted down while holed up in their cells and “summarily executed.”

The report was signed on February 28 by the five commissioners, led by Chairperson Purificacion Valera Quisumbing, and made public last Thursday.

Following the bloody assault, the Philippine National Police (PNP) said members of the special forces were sent in on the morning of March 15 to end the prolonged standoff after negotiations failed for the surrender of those who had attempted to escape. The police said that during the routine 6.30 a.m.-headcount at the maximum security facility on March 14, jailed members of the Abu Sayyaf grabbed the weapons of their guards and, overpowering them, took control of and blockaded the quarters. For more than 24 hours, the PNP said, negotiators tried to get them to surrender, and, with those means exhausted, police special forces stormed the building at past 10 a.m. on March 15 and engaged the inmates in a gun-battle.

Fifty-five minutes later, the police regained control of the jail; twenty-two inmates, one policeman, and three jail guards were counted dead.

The CHR, in its own retelling of events leading to the assault, and the assault itself, concluded that “there was no real threat to life that can be considered to justify the use of police assault or the use of excessive force.”

The CHR said that between the time that negotiations broke down and when the special forces were given instructions to storm the Special Intensive Care Area building of the facility, no life was in danger. Those who attempted to escape were not holding anyone hostage, the CHR noted. The situation, said the report, thus cannot be considered as an “extreme emergency” for the police to have undertaken such an assault.

“Under the circumstances, the police assault was not the only option or recourse left and should not have been resorted to. The negotiation can still be extended,” the CHR said.

Upon the release of the CHR’s report, the PNP through its chief, Gen. Arturo Lomibao, maintained that its members used “reasonable force … in accord with existing police operational procedures and the doctrines of self defense [and] defense of relative or stranger.” Lomibao said he was confident that the PNP “will be vindicated in the end.”

Lomibao was a member of the Crisis Management Team that handled the negotiations with the inmates during the standoff.

To complete its report, the CHR gathered testimonies from detainees and relatives of those who had been killed. The CHR also obtained an After Operations Report from the PNP. But, the CHR said, the PNP report, which they received on May 9, “did not contain the essential information on how the assault operation was carried out.” The Commission then asked the PNP to provide the lacking information, including: a list of the police personnel who were involved in the operation; a list of weapons used by the team; the assault plan; and the actual deployment of the team. At the time that the CHR finalized its report, the PNP has not provided the information.

The CHR scolded the PNP and the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) for the lack of what it said is an “impartial” inquiry into the siege, especially about what happened after the negotiations had failed, leading to the assault. In a report it issued a month after the siege, the DILG only said that the attempted jailbreak should be blamed on the lack of resources of the police and a failure of intelligence work.

“This Commission is aware that the investigations spearheaded by the DILG and the (Criminal Investigation and Detection Group) were for very limited objectives,” the CHR said. “Yet, it is equally important to broaden their respective focus for each of their agency to see to it they are agents of the State tasked to protect and promote human rights. It is important to emphasize that the absence of an investigation by an impartial authority creates an impression of impunity for state killings.”

The CHR further reminded the police: “The supreme right to life, as provided in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, means that State parties should take measures not only to prevent and punish deprivation of life by criminal acts, but also to prevent arbitrary killing by their own security forces.”

Therefore, the CHR said, the ICCPR “obligates the Philippine government to make a full and thorough inquiry of the assault that ensued as a result of the attempted jail break, the killing of jail personnel and inmates at Camp Bagong Diwa.”

These are the main findings of the CHR report:

1. There was no life that was in danger or there was no real threat to life that can be considered to justify the use of police assault or the use of excessive force.
2. The response of the authorities is exceedingly not proportionate to the force used by the person who staged the failed escape attempt.
3. There were inmates who, aside from not having any involvement or participation on the failed escape attempt were summarily executed as they were killed without any reason and were not given the chance to defend themselves.
4. Some inmates were maltreated after the police assault, which were not necessary to the success of the operation.

“Evidently, from the foregoing,” said the CHR, “there exists a probable cause that human rights violations have been committed.”

The CHR made the following recommendations:

1. The Department of Justice should create committee that will conduct the investigation to determine the criminal liability of the assaulting police units.
2. The Abu Sayyaf Group inmates willing to be witnesses should be transferred to the custody of any agency where their safety can be guaranteed.

The CHR’s report follows that of a group of human-rights NGOs, released barely two months following the events, that similarly called the police action, “excessive.”

The report, released by the Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates (PAHRA), said that members of the police Special Action Force (SAF) stormed the Special Intensive Care Area (SICA) building of the jail facility after negotiations bogged down. The SAF threw teargas canisters into, and then strafed, each of the cells on the first, second and third floors of the building. After the methodical firing, PAHRA said, detainees on the 2^nd and 3^rd floors were ordered to strip down to their underwear and come out of their cells.

Once out of their cells, the detainees were kicked and punched and ordered to put their hands behind their heads and crawl up to the rooftop. Some wounded detainees who were crawling out and asking for help from the … SAF … were ordered by the latter to return to their cells. As they did so, they were shot.

PAHRA said the police action was “excessive,” as less than ten detainees had joined the attempted jailbreak. All the other detainees had taken to their cells and locked themselves in precisely to avoid being caught in the conflict.

The report also told of how two of the Abu Sayyaf leaders who ended up dead were simply executed, and did not die during the firefight. (Read PAHRA’s report here.)

Early this month, the U.S. State Department released its report on the human rights situation in the Philippines, criticizing what it called the “pervasive weakness in the rule of law and official impunity ” that, along with the wide disparity between rich and poor, “contributed to cynicism about official justice.”

One of the conclusions drawn by that report is that the PNP stands as the “worst abuser” of human rights in the country.

Click here for the complete findings of the CHR investigation, and here for the recommendations.