Secret hell (2)

To his credit, Philippine National Police chief Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa appears to have modified his stance on the controversy surrounding the discovery of a secret cell of undocumented detainees maintained by Manila Police District (MPD) Station 1 in Tondo. The firestorm that greeted his knee-jerk, ill-considered support for the illegal action committed by his men clearly had an effect on him, and rightly so.

Dela Rosa’s first reaction compounded the outrage over the news that cops were holding drug suspects in a secret detention cell, and, worse, were reportedly extorting payment from their families for their release. The suspects were not booked for any crimes, and were being held in a sliver of space hidden behind a bookcase. It had neither ventilation nor a working toilet. The detainees’ condition came to light only when the Commission on Human Rights, acting on a tip about the matter, conducted an inspection of the police station.

Secret detention facilities are, first of all, prohibited by law, but Dela Rosa’s initial impulse was to rush to the defense of his men. They did no wrong, he said, echoing the justification aired by the station chief, Supt. Robert Domingo: that they were only forced to detain the suspects in the secret cell for lack of space in the station’s regular jail. But when CHR personnel demanded an inspection of the station, Domingo initially denied the existence of the hidden cell.

For good measure, Dela Rosa also attacked the CHR, claiming that the inspection was a political stunt made only “for show,” and timed with then ongoing activities that culminated in the Asean summit, when the world’s cameras were focused on Manila. The final flourish in his act of unilateral pardon for his erring men was declaring that they had essentially done nothing wrong, and that he was okay with the secret detention cell as long as no torture or extortion were inflicted on the detainees.

The public backlash was swift and well deserved, and now Dela Rosa appears to have been chastened into a more conciliatory tone. He has apologized to the CHR for his initial “emotional” response, and has acknowledged that the commission was only doing its job. He now admits to the fundamental illegality of arbitrary detentions and secret prisons, and says he will look more closely into the matter to make sure the appalling incident is not repeated in any other police station.

It’s a belated but welcome change in position that, if Dela Rosa is sincere about it, should serve as an official prod to the investigation of the MPD Station 1 cops that has been launched. The swift relief of Domingo from his post by the chief of the National Capital Region Police Office, Director Oscar Albayalde, was only the starting point; a thorough, transparent and impartial investigation needs to be done to find out not only how these cops ended up maintaining a secret detention cell, but also, and more importantly, who or what empowered them to think they could get away with such a fundamental travesty of their law-enforcement duties.

Dela Rosa maintains that, per his talk with the 12 detainees found in the cell, no extortion happened and that they had merely lied to the CHR. But independent reports gathered by news organizations including this paper quoted the detainees as saying that the cops had demanded amounts ranging from P40,000 to P200,000 from their families so they could be released from the hellish conditions where they were forced to urinate and defecate cheek by jowl with one another. Beatrice, an inmate interviewed by this paper, said her family had to cough up P40,000 for her freedom; to raise that amount, they were forced to sell their house, plunging them deeper into bankruptcy.

What does this shocker indicate but that the widespread corruption and sense of impunity afflicting the police force need to be addressed immediately? Don’t let this be swept under the rug as assorted controversies crash into and inundate the public consciousness. Might the secret jail cell in Tondo and its horrors be only one among many?