Militants want UN official to probe torture cases

Militants urged the government on Friday to invite the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture to look into serious cases of torture from the past to the present administrations. The Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) wants the government to invite Manfred Nowak, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, after the recent case of torture allegedly committed by policemen on a suspected thief in Tondo, Manila. Nowak is an Austrian human rights lawyer. He is also a Professor of Constitutional Law and Human Rights at the University of Vienna. "The entry of the rapporteur on torture can help shed light on the numerous cases of torture that have been documented from the past and current administration. However, the rapporteur can only come upon the formal invitation of a government. President Aquino can issue such an invitation to show greater transparency and seriousness in stamping out torture," said Bayan secretary-general Renato Reyes Jr., on the Bayan website. Bayan lamented that despite the Philippines being a signatory to the UN Convention Against Torture, and depsite the enactment of an Anti-Torture Law, no one has been convicted or made accountable for torture. Bayan called for the immediate filing of charges against those involved in the torture incident in Tondo, especially now that several government agencies — the Philippine National Police, Department of Interior and Local Government, Department of Justice, National Bureau of Investigation, the Office of the Ombudsman and the Commission on Human Rights— are looking into the incident. "We are of the belief that torture is practiced by state security forces in general, including the military. We base this on several documented cases of torture. These cases have not received much government attention until now," Reyes said. Reyes hoped that a visit from Nowak would help the country just as the visit of UN rapporteur on extrajudicial killings Philip Alston did. Alston exposed many of the roots of the alleged killings under the Arroyo government. "President Noynoy Aquino may go on and on saying that torture is not a policy of his government, but until someone is actually prosecuted and convicted, torturers will continue to feel emboldened," Reyes said. “The Aquino government must send a clear and unequivocal message to all state security forces that torture will be punished under our laws. Government should make the Tondo incident an example," he added. –VVP, GMANews.TV