Human Rights Committee - Philippine Center for Investigative ...

discrimination against children belonging to the poorest of the poor,” the
group declared.
The group stressed that the Ombudsman’s dismissal of the case “leaves
children prisoners without redress, in the face of the continuing, recurring,
non-stop, and officially sanctioned violation of their human rights.” “Sadly,
instead of redeeming thousands of children, this Order opens up the
floodgates for the perpetration of gross violation of the human rights of
children in conflict with the law,” the Coalition stressed.
“Nowhere in the world has this ghastly practice of jailing children with adult
crime suspects received as much official condonation and acquiescence as
in this country,” the group lamented
Impunity
“Contrary to international human rights norms and standards, the Order
effectively immunizes state functionaries from any accountability for their
obligation to respect, protect, and fulfill the human rights of children in
conflict with the law,” the group stressed.
“The Order of this Honorable Office regretfully entrenches further the wall of
impunity surrounding the state practice of jailing children belonging to the
poorest of the poor with adults in cramped police jails nationwide during
preventive detention, and prior to their turnover to the custody of the Bureau
of Jail Management and Penology by virtue of court orders.”
Command responsibility
“The President, like Chilean General Augusto Pinochet, and the President’s
own alter egos cannot escape culpability for jailing children with adult
prisoners since the practice constitutes a continuing act of torture, cruel,
inhumane, and degrading treatment and punishment and/or a form of crimes
against humanity that is universally outlawed by humankind,” the group said.
The group belied the Ombudsman’s claim that Arroyo and top officials have
no knowledge of the wide scale prison abuse that victimizes 13,300 to
20,000 children every year.
The group charged that mixing up children with adult prisoners has been
“happening with the President’s, and the President’s co-respondents’ own
knowledge and acquiescence and tacit authority.”
The group cited that Ricardo Saludo, Arroyo’s former spokesperson,
promised to look into the matter on December 11, 2003 during a press
conference in Malacanang.
“Moreover, given the fact that the jailing of children with adults has been
taken cognizance of by experts belonging to the Human Rights Committee
as well as the Committee on the Rights of the Child, the baseless claim by
the Office of the Ombudsman that the President, the Chief of the Philippine
National Police, and the Secretaries of the Department of Justice and of the
Department of Interior and Local Governments have no knowledge of this
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