The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) on Wednesday raised grave concern over alleged intrusive body search of visitors by jail guards at the Metro Manila District Jail Annex at Camp Bagong Diwa in Bicutan, Taguig City.
The CHR was reacting to a complaint by a certain Bona Fides Lucania who narrated how she was almost stripped naked by jail wardens at the camp’s detention facility when she visited last Jan. 8 her father whom she has not seen for three years due to the pandemic..
Lucania recalled that she was ordered to enter a room and lift her blouse so the jail custodian could search her underwears for alleged contrabands.
She also said the food items she was brining wrapped transparent containers were also spliced open and poked with used sticks.
The CHR invoked the Mandela Rules and the Operations Manual of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology, citing Rules 51 and 52(1) of the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners,
“We likewise remind BJMP officers and personnel to uphold their own regulations to nhelp ensure government compliance to the humane treatment of the accused and incarcerated.
The commission stressed that security searches should not be used to “harass, intimidate or unnecessarily intrude upon a prisoner’s privacy” and that “intrusive searches shall be conducted in private and by trained staff of the same sex as the prisoner.”
“The Commission underscored that application of BJMP’s search guidelines should not be arbitrary and that searches should not be targeted towards kin of political prisoners.
“The principles and practice of custodial function must extend impartially to all persons deprived of liberty as well as their families. As the lead agency in the Interim National Preventive Mechanism, CHR shall look into these allegations to ensure that searches are conducted in a manner intended for its purpose, but with utmost respect to individual dignity and privacy,” the CHR said.