The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) has pleaded with the Philippine National Police (PNP) to accept the Morong 43 detainees since they have been charged in court and the military has no business holding them.

CHR Chairwoman Leila M. de Lima also decried the continuing detention of the Morong 43 in Camp Capinpin, Tanay, Rizal, the headquarters of the 2nd Infantry Division of the Philippine Army (PA).

Karapatan secretary-general Marie Hilao Enriquez tagged the refusal of the PNP officials in Camp Crame to take in the detainees last Saturday on orders of Branch 78 of the Regional Trial Court (RTC) smacks of a “moro-moro.”

Enriquez said holding the Morong 43 in the stockade of Camp Capinpin would prolong the agony of the detainees, whom she said “were slapped with trumped-up charges following their torture after they were arrested illegally.”

CHR will conduct a hearing on the charges of the Morong 43, now down to 38 after the military said five of them will turn “state witnesses” against their colleagues after they purportedly “confessed” that they were “members” of the New People’s Army (NPA).

This claim has been debunked by the Council for Health and Development (CHD), which sponsored the training workshop for community health workers in Morong, which was raided on February 6 by hundreds of soldiers backed by armored personnel carriers (APCs) since the workshop was supposed to be for the “manufacture of land mines.”

De Lima said the PNP and the Armed Forced of the Philippines (AFP) must effectively work together to effect their immediate transfer to civilian facilities.

The CHR chief added the lack of coordination that reportedly blocked the recent attempt of the AFP to transfer the group from Camp Capinpin to Camp Crame was “far short of the obligations demanded by law from both the AFP and the PNP in terms of criminal procedure and human rights respect.”

De Lima further said: “These two institutions are demonstrating a serious deficiency of coordination, as eloquently demonstrated by the delivery of 38 of the Morong 43 to Camp Crame, only to have them promptly rejected by the PNP and returned to the military facility of Camp Capinpin. Excuses have been given by both institutions for this failed hand over, and attempts are being made by each party to evade responsibility, but at the end of the day, the sad fact is that it is the detainees who will continue to suffer. It is their rights which will continue to be placed in jeopardy, as they remain locked up in a military camp, instead of a civilian detention facility.”

“We have noticed that the PNP and AFP have each been passing responsibility, not just for the detention, but also for all operations concerning the Morong 43, on to the other,” added De Lima. “With both institutions singing different tunes, we are perplexed as to which one of them is really behind this entire muddle.”

Criminal charges for illegal possession of firearms had already been filed against the detainees, who denied all the accusations leveled against them by military intelligence agents and operatives under the supervision of Defense Secretary Norberto Gonzales.

“Without yet declaring the existence of human rights violations, including the alleged illegal detention, which are the subjects of the ongoing CHR inquiry, it can still be said that the filing of criminal information firmly placed the suspects within the jurisdiction of the civilian criminal justice system,” said De Lima, “meaning, that the proper place for their detention is in a civilian facility.”