CHR cracks whip on 2 Navy men

MANILA, Philippines - The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) has cited two officers of the Philippine Navy for contempt and imposed fines on them for their failure to attend several of the commission’s public inquiries into the case of the disappearance of a fisherman who was forced to admit to being an Abu Sayyaf member.

Commissioner Cecilia Quisumbing, officer-in-charge of the CHR, said this development signals that the commission will no longer tolerate obstructive and non-cooperative actions by the military and law enforcement agencies.

Captains Antonio Habulan and Bayani Gaerlan, both previous commanders of the Naval Intelligence and Security Force (NISF), repeatedly ignored multiple CHR orders to appear for public hearings that began on Dec. 12, 2008 despite due notice. They also failed to submit the information required by the CHR. 

The CHR also fined Habulan and Gaerlan a minimum of P3,000 each for not appearing for an executive session last Friday.

“All military and law enforcement bodies have to observe human rights and have to cooperate with the CHR which has the constitutional mandate to investigate possible human rights violations, including when officers in uniform are implicated,” Quisumbing said.

According to a Supreme Court ruling, “the CHR is constitutionally authorized to cite or hold any person in direct or indirect contempt…To exemplify, the power to cite for contempt should be exercised against persons who refuse to cooperate with the said body, or who unduly withhold relevant information, or who decline to honor summons, and the like, in pursuing its investigative work.”

The CHR took on the case of Muhamadiya Hamja’s disappearance after his son reported him missing. CHR records show Hamja, 50, was forced into a white van by armed men in civilian clothes, some of whom were wearing ski masks, while he was walking from the Blue Mosque in Maharlika Village, Taguig City after attending afternoon prayers on Nov. 28, 2008. Hamja alleged he was arrested and tortured by law enforcers.

After the immediate dispatch of a CHR quick reaction team, the victim was located at the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group office in Camp Crame.

The CHR recommended to the Department of Justice the filing of appropriate criminal and administrative charges against officials of the joint Criminal Investigation and Detective Group, NISF and National Intelligence and Coordinating Agency arresting team. 

The CHR said Habulan and Gaerlan ignored several orders to appear before the commission and to produce the list of the names of the operatives involved in the Hamja operation.

Habulan said he was absent from the hearings because he was appointed as the military attaché of the Navy to the United States while Gaerlan attributed his absence to a prior engagement that was of equal importance to the public inquiry. The CHR still cited him for contempt for failing to submit any written explanation on his absence prior to the inquiries.

Quisumbing reminded the officers that the commission recognizes that there are certain matters that are vital to national security and cannot be divulged but this does not apply to all information of the military. “These things should be decided on a case-to-case basis, not a blanket excuse not to share information on human rights cases,” she said.