THE Commission on Human Rights yesterday formally started its investigation on the alleged “degrading and traumatic” strip search on the wives of several political prisoners before they were allowed to visit their husbands at the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa City.
Four CHR representatives — lawyer Rommel Tinga and Special Investigators Michelle Tuliao, Mays Sylvette Rojas and Ma. Milanie Arao — went to the national penitentiary yesterday as the probe got going.
They met with Bureau of Corrections Head Executive Assistant Supt. Fe Marquez, NBP Acting Supt. And Corrections Chief Insp. Roger Boncales, NBP Maximum Security Camp Commander Corrections Senior Inspector Abel Ciruela and Corrections Insp. Evangeline Rabara, chief of the Inmate Visitation Service Unit.
“The BuCor gave the investigators a briefing and simulation of the strip cavity search to give them an idea on how visitations are conducted inside the NBP to maintain peace and order,” BuCor Director General Gregorio Catapang Jr. said.
“They also showed the investigators the NBP Maximum Camp, including the conjugal facilities and the park for persons deprived of liberty and their children,” he added.
Catapang said the CHR team told him they would summon the lady searchers and have them submit sworn statements.
Last week, seven BuCor officers were relieved of their duties to pave the way for an impartial probe of the CHR complaint.
The agency said the investigation on the seven will focus on how they conducted the strip search and whether they violated the protocol on the conduct of strip search being implemented by the bureau.
Strip searches involve the removal of a person’s clothes, including undergarments, to permit a visual inspection of his or her body.
