of the Philippines the criminal justice system is - Article 2

criminal
investigation is
mocked by
establishment of
ineffectual &
biased special
‘task force’
units....
“
”
and have not kept them informed of their work. The family found
out through the media that the police had produced a sketch of
the alleged killer.
Police invariably fail to involve the family of a victim in their
inquiries, often to the detriment of a case. After concluding their
investigation into the murder of husband and wife George and
Maricel Vigo (story 34), they filed charges against unidentified
members of an illegal armed group. Relatives of the victims
accused the police of working haphazardly and failing to interview
key witnesses, who had gone into hiding. Requests for new
investigations were ignored as the case was “closed” by virtue of
it being in the court, despite the fact that the actual identities of
the gunman and his accomplice had not been established.
The failure of police to work with victims’ families is most
glaring in cases of enforced disappearance. In practice the police
do little or nothing to assist persons searching for abducted and
missing relatives. Only where a body is recovered do investigators
go through the routine of making inquiries and completing
paperwork for the purpose of identifying the deceased, if not the
killers. Complaints of disappearances go no further than the daily
logbook, again particularly if the police are themselves the
accused, such as when they detained five persons on 28 April
2006 (story 89). Relatives of the five who went from one police
station or army camp to the next were repeatedly told that they
were not in custody there. Days later it was revealed that they
had been in police custody, and allegedly tortured, all along.
Criminal investigation in the Philippines is also mocked by
way of the establishment of ineffectual and biased special “task
force” units for specific crimes. In August 2006 the president of
the Philippines reportedly instructed the police task force
established to investigate cases of alleged extrajudicial killings
(Usig) to resolve at least ten within the following ten weeks. This
was never done. Had it been, it would still take 14 years to resolve
all the cases of killings known at the time of the instruction.
Evidently, the statement was intended as little more than a
publicity stunt, as indeed the task force to which it was directed
appears to be. Working on a monthly budget of around 300,000
Philippine Pesos (USD 6000) with limited personnel and
resources, the task force has at no point been capable of
investigating the hundreds of alleged killings and attempted
killings had it the inclination to do so, which successive
statements by its personnel have made clear it does not. The
Melo Commission report made public in February 2007 notes
that out of some 111 cases of killings acknowledged by the
Philippine police, most of which are under the responsibility of
Task Force Usig, only 37 have been forwarded to the prosecutor
(see appendix II).
10
article 2 • February 2007 Vol. 6, No. 1