Commission of Human Rights investigators (right, behind bars) talked to some inmates of the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center (CPDRC) to find out if they felt offended when they were made to undress by the authorities during a raid at the facility last Tuesday dawn.
CHR to evaluate findings; may conduct more interviews
THE Commission on Human Rights in Central Visayas (CHR-7) has interviewed at least six inmates of the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center (CPDRC) following reports that they were stripped naked during a surprise inspection of the facility, Tuesday dawn.
CHR-7 chief investigator Leo Villarino, however, was tight-lipped over what the inmates revealed to them.
“We will assess if what we gathered is already sufficient. We still have to meet with the investigators on Monday and evaluate what next step to do,” he said in an interview yesterday.
Villarino said the inmates were chosen at random from among the 2,754 prisoners at the provincial jail.
“What we have so far is just a small sample of the population. We will discuss among the investigators if we still have to continue interviewing more inmates,” he said.
Villarino was resting at home yesterday due to fever.
On orders of its central office, CHR-7 is conducting an investigation after photos of the naked CPDRC inmates went viral.
Vice President Leni Robredo expressed concern over the reports, saying this brought with it issues concerning human rights and should not happen again.
Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma called the forced undressing “improper.”
Amnesty International issued a statement calling it “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of prisoners.”
AI, in a statement, said it is the duty of authorities to “ensure that all persons deprived of liberty are protected from torture and other ill-treatment.”
Accompanied by other investigators, Villarino visited the CPDRC last Friday morning to talk with Roberto “Bobby” Legaspi, officer in charge of the provincial jail — the home of the world-renowned dancing inmates.
Upon Legaspi’s approval, Villarino and the other CHR investigators talked to the inmates and asked them if they felt offended or humiliated by PDEA’s action to strip them off of all their clothings during the greyhound operation.
Under the United Nations’ Standards for the Treatment of Prisoners, Villarino said stripping prisoners off of their clothes is allowed for security purposes during jail raids.
But intrusive searches are strictly prohibited, he said.
Intrusive searches, he explained, involved “going into or touching the cavities or crevices of the body.”
PDEA-7 Director Yogi Filemon Ruiz said he welcomed the CHR investigation but stood by his decision to undress the inmates to ensure the safety of the PDEA-7 agents who raided the CPDRC.
During the greyhound operation last Tuesday, they confiscated a total of 68 bladed weapons at the CPDRC.
Ruiz clarified that only the male inmates of CPDRC were asked to remove their clothes./Senior Reporter Ador Vincent S. Mayol and Reporter Nestle Semilla
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