Human Rights

Torture victims in the Philippines have suffered from the physical
and mental pain inflicted on them by those who have mercilessly
tortured them and have suffered a second time from the lack of a law
criminalising torture. For years, torture victims in the country have
been waiting for redress and a legal tool they can use to prosecute
their torturers. Even filing complaints supported with substantial
proof and medical evidence to support torture claims are later found
to be a meaningless exercise by victims and their legal counsel.
Because torture is not a criminal offence under the
Philippines’ penal code, torture victims can file a complaint,
but usually it makes little or no progress in the court system, if it
even reaches the courts. It can even take prosecutors years—for
instance, 11 years in one case—without resolving a complaint.
Often those accused are able to retire or commit similar offences
again and again without being held accountable for their violent
actions.
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MANILA — The umbrella group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan today called for a congressional inquiry into the role of military commanders assigned in the Northern Luzon Command (Nolcom) and Southern Luzon Command (Solcom) of the Armed Forces of the Philippines after a general again linked the AFP to the spate of extrajudicial killings in the country.
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