Humane treatment for prisoners sought

Sen. Richard Gordon yesterday called on local government units (LGUs) to allot resources to ensure humane treatment for prisoners in the aftermath of the death of two detainees in Metro Manila inside detention cell.

Gordon, chairman of the Senate Committee on Justice and Human Rights, said that LGU officials should make sure that there are funds intended for the improvement of detention facilities within their jurisdiction.

Gordon cited the observation made by Philippine Red Cross which found various detention facilities throughout the country to be overcrowded.

“The Philippine Red Cross has scoured the country and found that jails and detention facilities all over are massively overcrowded and lack sanitary facilities,” said Gordon.

“Prisoners have human rights too which is why I am calling on LGUs to devote resources for ensuring the humane treatment of prisoners,” stressed Gordon, who is also chairman of the Philippine Red Cross.

At the same time, Gordon has proposed the revocation of the cityhood of cities that fail to provide sufficient and humane facilities to detainees or prisoners.

Earlier, Philippine National Police chief Director General Oscar Albayalde called on the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) to help the PNP in convincing LGUs to allot fund to improve jail facilities, particularly those in Metro Manila.

Albayalde made the appeal following the death of Genesis Argoncillo, alias Tisoy, while under custody of the Quezon City Police District Station 4 in Novaliches.

Police initially blamed congestion as the cause of Argoncillo’s death but his death certificate showed that he died of “multiple blunt force trauma” or was beaten to death.

The congestion problem on jail facilities was raised anew also due to the intensified campaign of the PNP against violators of ordinances and “tambays” or loiterers.

So far, more than 15,000 individuals have already been accosted during the two-week intensified campaign but only 20 percent were formally charged while most were only warned.

According to Gordon, Article 10 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights mandates that ‘[a]all persons deprived of their liberty shall be treated with humanity and with respect for the inherent dignity of the human person.”

“It also requires that ‘the reform and social re-adaptation of prisoners’ be an ‘essential aim’ of imprisonment,” said Gordon.