Case PHL 290107.2.VAW
Follow-up of Case PHL 290107.1.VAW and PHL 290107.VAW
VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN
Arbitrary arrest/ Torture/ Detention of a pregnant woman in conditions that amount to ill-treatment
Geneva, 2 April 2007.
The International Secretariat of the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) has received new information and requests your URGENT intervention in the following situation in the Philippines.
The International Secretariat of OMCT has been informed by Task Force Detainees of the Philippines (TFDP), a member of the OMCT network, about the ongoing detention of a pregnant woman, Ms. Marilou Aligato, charged with the murder of a member of the military, Sergeant Analasan.
According to the information received, on 15 March 2007, the Commission on Human Rights – Region 8, issued a resolution concluding that Ms. Aligato’s arrest was lawful and that she had been subjected to “slight injuries” that could amount to torture according to the Convention against Torture but does not according to domestic law, for it does not contain any provision criminalising torture. The offence is punishable with two month’s imprisonment (article 266 of the Revised Penal Code on “light physical injuries”), which is now prescribed.
However, the qualification of the ill-treatment of Ms. Aligato as “slight injuries” is in full contradiction with the medical expertise she underwent and the victim’s testimony, which the CHR resolution considers reliable as follows: “Credence therein was found by the undersigned, for it is hard to believe that the same were merely fabricated or concocted”. Based on the severity and motivation of the ill-treatment described by the victim, the CHR further states that “the acts complained of appear qualified for TORTURE.”
Moreover, Ms. Aligato has been arraigned with murder before the Regional Trial Court Branch 25 per recommendation of Fiscal Alan Villar. Her attorney, Mr. Norjue Juego, has filed a motion for reinvestigation of the criminal case given the flimsiness of the evidence and testimonies.
According to the information received, Ms. Aligato is still held in the Ormoc City Sub-Provincial Jail in a small cell at the jail entrance that is borrowed by other male detainees when they receive visitors. According to a recent medical examination, her baby’s condition requires a caesarean operation. In this regard, OMCT recalls that in compliance with article 23.1 of the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, “Arrangements shall be made wherever practicable for children to be born in a hospital outside the institution.”
OMCT further recalls that according to the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women States shall “exercise due diligence to prevent, investigate and, in accordance with national legislation, punish acts of violence against women, whether those acts are perpetrated by the State or by private persons” (article 4.c).
According to the information received, on 7 November 2006, Ms. Marilou Aligato got off a bus at Kananga, Leyte, when suddenly troops of the 19th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army covered her eyes with a piece of cloth and took her to their headquarters at Barangay Aguitinh, Kananga.
There she was reportedly ill-treated while she was forced to reveal the whereabouts of her alleged companions of the New People’s Army (NPA). According to the information, one of the military men put a plastic bag over her head and tied it around her neck, and two other men identified as Hosena and Tapia hit her legs with weapons’ butts. She was also boxed in the chest by a man called Hamorawon and hit in the head and the back with guns by other soldiers.
Ms. Marilou Aligato is suspected of involvement in the killing of a soldier at Kananga Marked earlier that afternoon. According to an eyewitness in this case, only two men were involved in the murder of the army member.
After being kept in military custody for three days, Ms. Marilou Aligato was sent into police custody at the Kananga Municipal Jail. On 26 January 2007, she was transferred to the Sub-Provincial Jail in Ormoc City, reportedly held in a small and crowded cell. According to the information received, Ms. Aligato nearly lost her child as a result of torture and still at that time felt pain on her chest.
Please write to the authorities in the Philippines urging them to:
Please also write to the embassies of the Philippines in your respective country.
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Geneva, 2 April 2007.
Kindly inform us of any action undertaken quoting the code of this appeal in your reply.
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