MANILA, Philippines?The military points to some of the detained health workers raising clenched fists as proof that it rounded up anti-government activists. But this is a country that has decriminalized belonging to the Communist Party of the Philippines and what?s more, all the military has done is make allegations about the political orientation of its detainees.

Those detained by the Armed Forces of the Philippines say they are health workers and even the AFP doesn?t really dispute this, except to add that it suspects the detainees of engaging in more than public health. The health workers say they were taking part in a health seminar when they were arrested; the military says they were caught in the act of making explosives. Again, this remains to be proven in a civilian court of law.

The Hippocratic Oath requires doctors to attend to all patients, regardless of color, creed or political affiliation. Just as every citizen has the freedom to adopt a political affiliation, ideology in turn is not a bar to providing health care nor should it even be a factor in determining the sincerity of a person engaged in health care. Last Sunday, Chair Leila de Lima of the Commission on Human Rights was denied access to the detainees.

In the meantime, inquest proceedings were begun, but the detainees claim they were denied counsel. Eventually, De Lima was allowed access to the detained health workers, and she told the media the military treated the detainees with all the finesse of Guantanamo prison: ?They are continuously handcuffed and blindfolded? they are not allowed to sleep, somebody else feeds food into their mouths, even when they urinate?somebody else pulls down their underwear.? She clarified that she found no signs of physical abuse. Jane Balleta, one of the detainees, told the press, ?They treated me okay. [However] there were instances that we were threatened and pressured.? And the detainees allege prolonged interrogations and being held incommunicado.

Republic Act 9745 or the Anti-Torture Act, which dates to Nov. 10, 2009, defines the crime of torture as ?an act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for the purpose of obtaining a confession, among other things.?

The problem with the military?s entire case so-called is that its handling of the whole thing has raised alarm and put the AFP on a collision course with the courts. What is undisputed is the manner in which the military has responded to official inquiries and judicial proceedings: with a sweeping, dangerous sense of impunity. It was hostile to the Commission on Human Rights, and when instructed to produce the detainees in response to a habeas corpus petition, it defied the courts at first.

The AFP, which had trucks and manpower aplenty to arrest the health workers, put forward lame arguments similar to the one it gave De Lima: it feared a rescue attempt by communist rebels and so preferred to keep the detainees away from public view. It doesn?t help that civilian officials like Assistant Solicitor General Renan Ramos told the Court of Appeals, ?The security considerations outweigh the sentiments of the detainees,? in response to the detainees? counsel being denied access to their lawyers.

There is a famous dictum that ?when the guns speak, the law falls silent.? This is the implied threat in the current, dismissive, behavior of the military top brass and the source of so much public concern and alarm.

Armed Forces Chief of Staff Gen. Victor Ibrado, in the light of public alarm, responded by gently rapping his subordinates on the knuckles. He reminded the AFP in general, but no one in particular, that everyone should comply with the instructions of the court. What happened to command responsibility? It isn?t the entire Armed Forces, but specific military officers, who now risk being charged with violations of the Anti-Torture Law? Even if the military previously had a case, by its intransigence and demonstrations of impunity, it is rapidly losing any moral ascendancy it might have once tried to claim.