Legarda seeks approval of treaty for improvement of jails

MANILA, Philippines - Senate committee on foreign relations chair Loren Legarda called on senators to approve a treaty that seeks to improve the conditions of the country’s jails in order to promote the rehabilitation of prisoners.

Legarda had sponsored the committee report on Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (OPCAT), the subsidiary instrument of the Convention Against Torture of which the Philippines is a state party.

She said the OPCAT seeks to prevent torture and other forms of abuse through an international mechanism that will conduct regular visits to places of detention within state parties.

“It is a treaty obligation for state parties to the OPCAT to accept visits from the subcommittee and grant it access to all places of detention within its jurisdiction,” Legarda said.

“The OPCAT forwards the idea that through a system of regular jail visits by independent international and local monitors, torture and other forms of ill-treatment can be prevented in jails and that jail conditions can be improved,” she added.

Legarda explained that state parties to the OPCAT are required to create national preventive mechanisms, which will work with the United Nations subcommittee to conduct regular visits to all places of detention.

The subcommittee will make recommendations on the establishment of effective measures to prevent torture and ill-treatment and to improve the living conditions of all detainees.

Because the conditions in the country’s jails are still far from being acceptable by any standard, the Department of Foreign Affairs has indicated that it would request the subcommittee for a deferment of the implementation of the obligations to the OPCAT once the country ratifies this.

Legarda said that the deferment would give the Philippines three years to improve prison, detention and custodial facilities before the subcommittee can perform visits.

“I wish to emphasize that the deferment refers only to requests for visits by the subcommittee and not on the establishment of the national preventive mechanism which is required by the OPCAT to be established within one year after accession,” Legarda said.

“Hence, despite the declaration, torture and ill-treatment can immediately be prevented because of the establishment of a national body that can undertake visits to prisons and other detention and custodial facilities,” she added.

Legarda pointed out that the deferment would allow the government to address three critical issues in the country’s penal system, namely overcrowding, outbreak of diseases and the need for better jail environments that would promote rehabilitation and eventual reintegration of the detainees.

“The Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP), with its limited resources, has been struggling to meet the standard minimum rules for treatment of prisoners set forth by the United Nations,” Legarda said.

Based on data provided by the BJMP, Legarda noted that there is a net monthly addition of 102 inmates to the country’s jails.

The ratio of guards to inmates is one for every 48, which is far from the international standard of one for every seven.

As for allowance of an inmate’s meals, the government provides a mere P50 per inmate each day.

Legarda said that the budget for medicine is a meager P3 per inmate per day.

“As a state party to all eight core UN Human Rights Treaties and as an internationally recognized champion of human rights in the region, it naturally follows that we accede to OPCAT,” Legarda said.

“Our accession will help put into action our commitment to human rights and to the government’s constitutionally mandated obligation to ensure that the rights of our citizens are upheld and protected,” she added.