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4.9. The citizen’s complaint mechanism, though largely composed
of civilians, is crippled by a lack of resources and is
undermined due to political interference. under the PLEB’s
guidelines, the board’s composition includes members of
the City or municipal Council, the Association of Barangay
(village) Council and three people chosen by the Peace and
Order Council (POC). The three representatives from the
POC, as required by law, should be a person respected
in the community, a member of the Philippine Bar and a
school principal. however, in practice, most members from
the POC are the appointees of a local chief executive, thus
creating the possibility of political influence by the local chief
executive in deciding cases, especially since representatives
from the POC comprise a majority of the PLEB. For instance,
in the cities of general Santos and Davao, none of those who
have been chosen by the POC are school principals. The
chief executive also determines who is a “person respected
in the community,” which typically leads to a person being
selected that suits the interests of the chief executive.
4.10. It can therefore be stated without equivocation that there are
no independent State agencies able to effectively investigate
allegations and complaints of torture in the Philippines at
present. In case a law criminalizing torture is passed, as
required under the CAT, in the near future, it will also be
imperative to address this lacuna without delay, in order
to give the law the chance of being implemented effectively.
The current structures and compositions of the agencies
and bodies that have the authority to receive complaints
and investigate cases are clearly not sufficient and their
decisions are inevitable influenced, politically or otherwise,
to prevent the case from progressing through effective
investigation to the prosecution phase in court.
4.11. No adequate protection to complainants and witnesses:
under section 3 of RA 6981, a person can only be admitted
into the witness Protection Programme if the person
has “witnessed or has knowledge or information on the
commission of a crime and has testified or is testifying or
about to testify before any judicial or quasi-judicial body,
or before any investigating authority.” however, there is
no provision for the interim protection of persons making
complaints prior to the filing of the complaint in court and
pending endorsement by the prosecutors to the court. given
the delays in this system, a complainant can be exposed
for lengthy periods of time to reprisals, which is a serious
deterrent for victims of torture wishing to register complaints
and seek justice. The investigating agencies have been
exploiting the resulting lack of witnesses under witness
Protection, Security and benefit Act (RA 6981) as an excuse
to explain the lack of progress in their investigations and the
prosecution of cases. There have been proposals to amend
RA 6981, but these have not yet been realized.
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