BJMP memorandum orders surveillance, review of letters, visitors
The country’s leading human rights lawyers condemned the new “close monitoring” measures by jail authorities on political prisoners it tagged as suspected members or allies of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).
The National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL) revealed that the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) directed jail wardens to impose additional “draconian measures,” including the surveillance and review of “all correspondence, visitor interactions, and external communications” of detainees.
According to a BJMP-National Capital Region memorandum supplied to Kodao dated January 10, jail wardens are directed to also conduct so-called “behavioral monitoring” to assess security risks as well as stringent visitor background checks and approvals.
Referring to a reported January 9 memorandum from BJMP director for intelligence Roland Lee Cael, the later directive cited a Facebook post by retired Lt.Gen. Antonio Parlade Jr. alleging that House of Representatives Deputy Minority Floor Leader and ACT congresswoman France Castro is “frequenting” jail facilities to “solicit funds from drug traffickers through the efforts of suspected members of the (CPP).”
“Enhanced surveillance must be implemented to prevent any unauthorized activities, including subversive actions or recruitment efforts. All correspondence, visitor interactions, and external communications of these individuals must be reviewed and closely monitored,” the memorandum, issued by BJMP-NCR jail director Clint Russel Tangeres, reads.
In his own comment to his December 26 Facebook post, Parlade alleged that Castro’s jail visits are to solicit funds from suspected drug lords in jail with political detainees.
Parlade did not identify who the suspected drug personality or political detainees were.
The NUPL however said it is both “ludicrous and deeply concerning” that a government agency tasked with overseeing jail management would consider an “unverified Facebook post from an unreformed red-tagger as sufficient basis for policy.”
“The NUPL denounces the reported directive as a glaring example of McCarthyism. Like the ideological witch hunts of the past, these measures target individuals based solely on suspicion and ideological profiling, and unverified allegations,” it said in a statement.
The lawyers group said the BJMP is violating international and domestic human rights laws as its measures undermine presumption of innocence as well as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) by imposing punitive measures without trial.
“They also violate the right to privacy and human dignity, as affirmed in the ICCPR (Article 17), by subjecting detainees to invasive surveillance and severely restricting essential correspondence and visitor interactions,” the NUPL said.
The rights lawyers also asserted that Parlade’s accusation against Castro is not only “baseless and ridiculous” but also a “calculated attempt to malign a legitimate and progressive party-list that has consistently represented the interests of teachers and education workers.”
The NUPL called on the BJMP to withdraw directives that would institutionalize harassment or repression against political prisoners.
“We further urge the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) to launch a comprehensive investigation into the reported measures, their legality, and their impact on the conditions of detainees, including cases of denied visitation rights, and reports of NTF-ELCAC operatives pressuring detainees to make extrajudicial confessions or surrenders without the presence of counsel,” it added. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
