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The following was submitted by counsel for posting at the website of the Philippine
President but never got posted:
GMA liable for 12-year jail term for child prison abuse: Open letter to
President Arroyo 20
Created by Perfecto Caparas on August 29th, 2005 at 12:17 am AST
GMA liable for 12-year jail term for child prison abuse: Open letter to
President Arroyo
Her Excellency Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo
President
Republic of the Philippines
Malacanang, Manila
Dear President Arroyo:
We—members of the Coalition to Stop Child Detention Through Restorative
Justice composed of 26 organizations nationwide—respectfully demand that
the Office of the President immediately stop the barbaric, systematic,
organized, and wide scale crime being committed with impunity by officers of
the Philippine National Police (PNP) against 52,000 child prisoners.
These police officers—who are acting under the President’s control and
supervisory authority—flout the law by locking up children with adult crime
suspects in police stations and headquarters as a matter of standard
operating procedure all over the country, save for Cebu City. This happens
over extended periods and prior to their turnover to the Bureau of Jail
Management and Penology by virtue of court-issued commitment orders.
Routinely locking up children, upon arrest, in filthy jails swarming with adult
crime suspects constitutes cruelty, torture, and abuse. It subjects them to
conditions inimical to their development.
This is punishable under Article VI, Section 10(a) of Republic Act 7610 or An
Act Providing for Stronger Deterrence and Special Protection against Child
Abuse, Exploitation and Discrimination, and for Other Purposes. According
to Article I, Section 3(b) of this law, child abuse covers “(p)sychological and
physical abuse, neglect, cruelty, sexual abuse and emotional maltreatment.”
Child abuse also embraces “(a)ny act by deeds or words which debases,
degrades or demeans the intrinsic worth and dignity of a child as a human
being.”
Through the chain of command, the police officers are wantonly committing
this continuing crime under the President’s implicit, if not direct, orders.
The President controls and supervises the Secretary of Interior and Local
Governments. The Interior Secretary, in turn, supervises and controls these
PNP lawbreakers. In the final analysis, therefore, the President—by virtue of
the principle of command responsibility—bears criminal responsibility for
abetting and indirectly perpetrating, as well as perpetuating this
institutionalized hooliganism.
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