Cops still top human rights violators - CHR
ILOILO-'Traditional' human rights violations are noticeably down in the recorded cases of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) here, yet as far as statistics for Western Visayas is concerned, members of the Philippine National Police (PNP) remain as top violators.
In the recent CHR report most of the violation committed by PNP men is on 'unlawful arrest' where in the 68 suspects classified by profession, 22 from the group are active PNP men.
The figure while not representative of the majority count of policemen throughout the region has caused government human rights advocates to call for attention as the CHR bares in its Protection and Monitoring Division report.
Being 'top respondents,' the PNP men were thus classified as topmost suspects joined in the 'top three' by civilian suspects and government employees. Alongside the PNP cases are significant violations and violators of RA 7610 or the Anti-Child Abuse Law.
Yet of late, cases on the new law, RA 9262 or the Anti-violence against women and children were also brought to the CHR's attention particularly by spouses of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs). The cases against their partners? Not enough spending money.
'This is relatively a new law but there are already four victims who complained before our office of violations of their rights under this provision and all of these victims are all spouses of Overseas Filipino Workers who all complained of economic abuse,' excerpts of the CHR reports as obtained by The News Today stated. 'Quite a number of clientele also sought legal advise from this office relative to cases involving domestic affairs where one party involved is an overseas worker either as an alleged victim or a respondent to the case. Perhaps, these cases involving OFWs and their relatives are manifestations of the social cost that these Overseas Workers are presently experiencing.'
Said emergence of the new complainants and new complaints has thus far set a new trend as far as CHR's classification of cases are concerned.
'While there is a decrease of cases for those usually referred to as 'traditional human rights violations,' an increase on cases like violation of RA 9262, 7610 and those involving OFWs and their dependents is observed,' the report continued.
And while a steady rise in the past years have been observed, the CHR decried though what it termed as its concern over government agencies that are 'seemed not prepared to deal with this problem.'
'Support services like socio-psycho intervention is inadequate. Even government doctors and hospitals on several occasions refused to conduct medical examinations on these victims if no referral from the police is presented. CHR request is sometimes not honored,' the report added.
On top of these cases, the Commission further expressed its concern on the slow disposition of cases of detention prisoners who at times are detained way beyond the imposable penalties for the crime charged.
Such on top of the 'perennial problem,' the CHR noted, of congested prisons in various detention centers throughout Region 6.
'Likewise, only few of these centers have separate detention facilities for women and children in conflict with the law. This problem was brought to the attention of several concerned officials. Hopefully, the completion of the New Iloilo Rehabilitation Center will alleviate the present situation,' the report ended, 'but only in Iloilo.'