Wednesday, November 6, 2019
HEINOUS PRISONS PROF. - LUIS V. TEODORO
See - https://www.luisteodoro.com/heinous-prisons/
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HEINOUS PRISONSPROF. LUIS V. TEODORO'S BLOG, COLUMNS AND OTHER WRITINGS
Philippine prisons are as abhorrent as the crimes — rape, kidnapping and murder, among others — some Filipinos have committed or have been accused of.
In 2018 there were 933 prisons in the Philippines with a total population of some 188,000. That number may not look unusual — until one learns that more than 75 percent of those in prison have not been convicted or even tried, and are still awaiting trial. Some 50 percent of the detainees in this category have been in jail for over 250 days, or for nine excruciating, seemingly endless months.
These are among the findings of a study (“Understanding Factors Related to Prolonged Trial of Detained Defendants in the Philippines”) by Raymund Narag, an assistant professor of criminology at the Southern Illinois University.
But most Filipinos are already familiar with the hellish conditions in Philippine prisons, among them their being crammed to the rafters with inmates. Some of the country’s jails hold a number of prisoners four, five, many times their capacities. The congestion makes the spread of communicable diseases almost certain.
Some jails are flooded during the rainy season and stiflingly hot during the dry. Prisoners have no place to sleep in many municipal jails except the floor, the stairs or whatever space is available. Some have died of various illnesses or the afflictions of old age after having been in prison for decades.
The overwhelming majority in the country’s prisons are poor folk who can’t afford bail and/or the pricey lawyers who sell their skills mostly to the rich, and hence can’t secure their temporary liberty while they’re on trial or waiting for their day in court. Some have spent years in prison for stealing food or for snatching cellphones. Still others have been convicted by incompetent judges, or are in jail because they confessed under torture to crimes they did not commit, or on the mistaken assumption that they would be released once they do so.
Like the entrance to Dante’s Inferno, the gates of Philippine prisons might as well warn all who enter them to abandon all hope. But as in many other areas of life in these isles of despair, this warning applies only to the poor and powerless.
Even if they do somehow get convicted of rape or murder, the wealthy and well-connected need not despair. Philippine prisons are not only the subject of shocked accounts in the foreign press. They are also microcosms of the rigid stratification of Philippine society. They are enclaves in which rich and powerful inmates can come and go as they please no matter what the crime they have been convicted of. They can construct and air condition mini-condos, indulge their worst vices, and even bribe their way out. Some of those accused and even convicted of such crimes as graft and plunder are spared their horrors and detained, if at all, in special prisons or in the comfort of “hospital arrest.”
Convicted of several counts of graft, Ferdinand Marcos’ widow Imelda is yet to spend a single hour in any of the prisons to which her late husband sent thousands from 1972 to 1986. Ramon Revilla, Jr., now a senator of the Republic, has been acquitted of plunder, but has nevertheless been asked to return the amounts involved in the pork barrel scam he was accused of benefiting from. Former Senator Juan Ponce Enrile, who survived the physical rigors of the 2016 campaign, is similarly accused of plunder — but is even weighing in on the GCTA scandal while on temporary liberty supposedly because he’s in poor health.
The rotten state of the country’s prisons and justice system is the context in which the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) scandal over the implementation of the law on Good Conduct and Time Allowance (GCTA—Republic Act 10592) broke some two weeks ago. Like the many other issues that haunt the Duterte regime — the sheer incompetence and corruption of many of its accomplices, the human rights violations, the extrajudicial killings, the attacks on the independent press, the surrender of Philippine sovereignty to Chinese interests, etc., etc. — that scandal refuses to go away, despite the attempt of regime allies, agents and collaborators to evade responsibility for the corruption in the agency dismissed Director General Nicanor Faeldon and company at least tolerated if they did not benefit from it. The regime and its cronies instead want the public to blame detained Senator Leila de Lima and the Liberal Party’s Manuel “Mar” Roxas II, who put together the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of RA 10592.
Congressional hearings are supposed to be in aid of legislation. But the Senate hearings on the subject chaired by Duterte ally Richard Gordon were obviously not held for that purpose. Rather were they one more attempt at whitewashing the culpability of the regime’s appointees and the regime itself that is once more demonstrating how far incompetence and corruption has metastasized throughout government during the Duterte watch. They could have addressed, but did not, both the corruption and other issues in BuCor and the New Bilibid Prison as well as the putrid state of the country’s prisons, which Narag points out has worsened because of the Duterte regime’s failed, failing, and fake “war on drugs.”
That “war,” says Narag, has not only contributed to the jam-packing of Philippine prisons through the arrest and surrender of tens of thousands of suspected drug users and pushers. It has also made Filipinos buy into the regime narrative that rather than imprisonment, much less rehabilitation, such brutal means as the extrajudicial killings that have been the regime’s preferred “solution” to the drug problem are more likely to work.
In 2014, Narag had already identified what factors are responsible for the abomination known as the Philippine prison system. Among them, he told the online news site Rappler, are the deficiencies in their facilities and the government focus on finding someone to blame for its problems rather than addressing them. Instead, there are frequent changes in who heads BuCor. Former Duterte Special Assistant, now Senator Christopher “Bong” Go’s response to the BuCor scandal was typical. He suggested that “a killer “ was needed to replace Faeldon. Not only did that suggestion — which Mr. Duterte apparently took seriously — imply that what’s needed in BuCor is another Duterte assassin. It also evaded addressing the corruption and other issues that not only Narag but other analysts of the penal system have long noted, among them that the system further hardens criminality rather than reforms those who still have some humanity left.
Every inmate’s humanity is in fact the first casualty of prison life in the Philippines. Here is a description, from a New York Times report, of what it’s like to be poor, powerless and in a jail in the Philippines that might as well be another circle in Dante’s hell:
“On one recent night at (the Manila City Jail), the air was thick and putrid with the sweat of 518 men crowded into a space meant for 170. The inmates were cupped into each other, limbs draped over a neighbor’s waist or knee, feet tucked against someone else’s head, too tightly packed to toss and turn in the sweltering heat.”
In a 2018 report, the Commission on Audit (COA) pointed out that “congestion in jails leads not only to health and sanitation problems but also to increased gang affiliation of inmates. To survive, inmates hold on to gangs (in which) they find protection, a network of social support, and access to material benefits.”
Among many other abominations, this is what the rule of the most corrupt and most incompetent political class in Asia has wrought — and be warned: there’s more to come.
Also published in BusinessWorld. Image by Marko Lovric on Pixabay.
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An appeal for safety of lawyers and judges - Atty. Lorna Patajo-Kapunan
See - https://businessmirror.com.ph/2019/09/30/an-appeal-for-safety-of-lawyers-and-judges/
An appeal for safety of lawyers and judges
By Atty. Lorna Patajo-Kapunan
-September 30, 2019
Concern over the escalation of attacks against lawyers and judges in the Philippines has prompted the issuance by lawyers’ organizations worldwide of the statement reproduced hereunder: It is hoped that our Philippine government and our justice system heed the recommendation.
‘The Philippines: Attacks against lawyers escalating’
“September 17, 2019—We, the undersigned organizations, lawyers and members of the legal profession, express deep concern over the increasing attacks against lawyers in the Philippines and the oppressive working environment they face since the start of President Duterte’s administration. We call on the Duterte administration to adequately protect the safety and independence of lawyers and end the culture of impunity in which these attacks occur.
Extrajudicial killings and harassment of lawyers
Since President Duterte took office on June 30, 2016, the number and intensity of attacks against lawyers have increased significantly. At least 41 lawyers and prosecutors were killed between July 2016 and September 5, 2019, including 24 practicing lawyers. Lawyers are also harassed and intimated. They are subjected to (death) threats, surveillance, labeling and other forms of attacks. In addition, at least five judges and retired judges have been murdered since July 2016, bringing the total number of jurists extrajudicially killed in the Philippines to at least 46 in the same period. Eight jurists survived attacks on their life.
Lawyers at risk
Most killings and attacks of lawyers took place as a result of discharging professional duties or are believed to be otherwise work-related. Especially at risk are lawyers representing people accused of terrorist or drug-related crimes, or government critics, such as journalists, political opposition leaders, and human-rights defenders. Lawyers providing legal representation in high-profile cases impacting established interests, such as land reform, or lawyers taking part in public discussion about human-rights issues, also face reprisals.
Grave implications of threats and labeling
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet recently noted that senior officials of the government of the Philippines have threatened lawyers and others who have spoken out against the administration’s policies, and she added that this “creates a very real risk of violence against them, and undermines rule of law, as well as the right to freedom of expression.”
Prior to being attacked some lawyers were labeled as “communist” or “terrorists” by the state.
Concerned with the sharp deterioration of the human-rights situation, 11 UN human-rights experts, in a June 7, 2019, press release, called on the UN Human Rights Council to establish an independent investigation into human-rights violations committed in the Philippines. “Instead of [the government] sending a strong message that these killings and harassment are unacceptable, there is a rising rhetoric against independent voices in the country and ongoing intimidation and attacks against voices who are critical of the government, including independent media, human-rights defenders, lawyers and journalists, the experts said.
Culture of impunity
The UN experts also noted that “the government has shown no indication that they will step up to fulfill their obligation to conduct prompt and full investigations into these cases, and to hold perpetrators accountable in order to do justice for victims and to prevent reoccurrence of violations.”
Consequences
The attacks against and extra-judicial killings of lawyers and the impunity shielding perpetrators impair the ability of lawyers to provide effective legal representation, make lawyers increasingly wary of working on sensitive cases, and consequently severely undermine the proper functioning of the rule of law and the adequate protection of rights, including the right to remedies and fair trial.
International obligations
According to the United Nations Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers (UN Basic Principles), States should ensure that all persons within their jurisdiction have effective and equal access to lawyers of their own choosing, and that lawyers are able to perform their professional functions without intimidation, hindrance, harassment or improper interference. The Basic Principles require that lawyers are adequately protected when their security is threatened because of carrying out their legitimate professional duties, and not be identified with their clients or their clients’ causes. The Basic Principles affirm that lawyers, like other citizens, are entitled to freedom of expression and assembly. The duty to respect and guarantee these freedoms forms an integral part of the Philippines’ international legal obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
Recommendations
In view of the above, the undersigned organizations and individuals urge the government of the Philippines to:
1. Investigate promptly, effectively, thoroughly and independently all extrajudicial killings and attacks against lawyers, and other jurists, with the aim of identifying those responsible and bringing them to justice in proceedings that respect international fair trial standards.
2. Take all reasonable measures to guarantee the safety and physical integrity of lawyers, including the provision of adequate protection measures, in consultation with the person concerned;
3. Consistently condemn all forms of threats and attacks against lawyers publicly, at all political levels and in strong terms; and
4. Fully comply with and create awareness about the core values underlying the legal profession, among others by bringing the UN Basic Principles on the Rule of Lawyers to the attention of relevant stakeholders, especially members of the executive, police and the military.
Organizations:
Advocaten zonder Grenzen (Netherlands), European Association of Lawyers, Afrika Judges and Jurists Forum, Agora International Human Rights Group (Russia), Amsterdam Bar Association (Netherlands), The Arrested Lawyers Initiative (Turkey), Asian Human Rights Commission, Asian Legal Resources Center, Association of Lawyers for Freedom, Avocats Sans Fontieres Belgigue, Avocats Sans Frontieres (Suisse), Bar Human Rights Committee of England & Wales, Barcelona Bar Association, Berlin Bar Association, Cameroon Bar Association, China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group, Confederation of Lawyers of Asia Pacific, French National Bar, Council of Bar and Law Societies of Europe, Croatian Bar Association, Defense sans Fronteire—Avocats Solidaires, Democratic Lawyers Association of Pakistan, Ilustre Colegio de Abogados de Lima Sur (Peru), Indian Association of Lawyers (Member of Colab), International Association of Democratic Lawyers, International Association of Lawyers, International Association of Peoples’ Lawyers, International Association of Young, International Bar Associations’ Human Rights Institute, International Commission of Jurists, International Observatory for Lawyers in Danger, Japan Lawyers International Solidarity Association, Rechter Voor Rechters Judges for Judges (Netherlands), I’Institut des droits de I’homme des Avocats europeens, Law Bureau of the Oppressed—Ezillenlerin Hukuk Burosu, Law Council of Australia, The Law Society of England and Wales, Law Society of Ontario (Canada), Lawyers Association RAV (Germany), Lawyers for Lawyers (Netherlands), Lawyers Right Watch Canada, Le Barreau du Kasai Central (Congo), Lithuanian Bar Association, Luxembourg Bar Association—Barreau de Luxembourg, Media and Law Studies Association (Turkey), MINBYUN—Lawyers for a Democratic Society of the Republic of Korea, National Bar of Attorneys-at-law in Poland, Nepal’s Lawyers Association, The Association of the Bar of the City of New York (United States), Orde Van Advocaten Den Haag—The Hague Bar Association (Netherlands), Bar Association North Netherlands, Paris Bar—Barreau de Paris (France), Southern Africa Litigation Centre, Surinamse Orde van Advocaten—Surinam Bar Association, Swedish Bar Association, Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (Thailand), The Norwegian Bar Association, Human Rights Committee, Vietnamese Lawyers Association, Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights.”
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