HK-based rights group: Cops torture 5 in Pampanga HQ

At least five men were subjected to torture in a Pampanga police facility last August, a Hong Kong-based human rights group said over the weekend. Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) said the five men's ordeal began last August 3 when they were "arbitrarily" arrested in San Fernando, Pampanga. "One of the victims, who revealed his ordeal in an interview, said the police suffocated him, severely assaulted him, burnt his skin with lit cigarette and threatened to harm his family," it said in its website. The AHRC identified the five as Lenin Salas, Jerry Simbulan, Daniel Joseph Navarro, Jose Gomez, and Rodwin Tala. It said their ordeal began at 9:30 p.m. last Aug. 3, when they were arrested in Villa Barcelona Subdivision in Sindalan village in the City of San Fernando. AHRC said the arrests stemmed from the five's alleged involvement with the Marxist Leninist Party of the Philippines-Rebolusyonaryong Hukbo ng Bayan (MLPP-RHB), an illegal armed group. [See article: 5 members of NPA breakaway group nabbed in Pampanga] According to the AHRC, Salas said that while he and another companion were at the house of a friend, Donald, in the same subdivision, the security guard of the subdivision approached them. While he was speaking to the security guards, he noticed a policewoman exiting from one of the houses close to where they were. After a few minutes, three more policemen later identified as SPO4 Hernando Sarmiento, PO3 Arnold Barrion and PO1 Edward Bengbeng, arrived in a police patrol car. The police personnel had Salas' companions alight from a car they were riding, then called for reinforcements from the Provincial Public Safety Office under Superintendent Madzgani Mukaram. "When the group of Supt. Madzgani Mukaram arrived, Lenin and his four companions were already lying faced to the ground. Supt. Mukaram, according to Lenin, started assaulting and kicking him after coming close to him. His companions were also assaulted," AHRC said. Salas said he and his four other companions were taken to separate vehicles. "Although his movement had already been restrained as he was already inside the police car, he was continuously assaulted and beaten with a stick. All of them were taken to the Provincial Police Office (PPO). Inside the police headquarters, all of them were blind folded and had suffered various forms of tortured," AHRC said. Inside the headquarters, Salas said the police assaulted him and beat him with a gun, burnt his body and his neck with lit cigarettes, applied dry suffocation on him by covering his face with cellophane and kicked his genitals, according to the AHRC. "While he was blindfolded, the policemen had on purpose let him hear the squeezing and clicking sound of a revolver beside his ear. They were also deprived of food from the time of their arrest until August 4 in the afternoon," AHRC said. Salas dared Mukaram to kill them, supposedly prompting Mukaram to threaten to harm Salas' family if he refused to cooperate with the police. Mukaram also threatened them that more of the victims' companions would disappear and that he had already asked his men to work on it, AHRC added. When Salas asked Mukaram about respecting their rights, the policeman supposedly said: "There are no human rights for us. We will kill each of your contacts in the media and other groups and we just bury them." "Supt. Mukaram told Lenin that to kill his sister would not take long; and that even if he decides to visit the wake of his sister he could not do so because they will make sure he could not get out of jail," AHRC said. The torture ended 2 p.m. of August 4, when the men were taken to the Provincial Prosecutor's Office (PPO) in San Fernando, Pampanga. They were charged with Illegal Possession of Firearms, ammunition and explosives. AHRC urged the public to write letters to the authorities requesting an investigation of the alleged torture. "The police official and others involved in arbitrarily arresting, torturing, detaining and threatening the victims should also be subjected to a credible investigation," it said. AHRC said it has also written letters to the Special Rapporteurs on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. — LBG, GMANews.TV