MANILA, Philippines – The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) is protesting the military’s prohibition of visits to the 43 health workers who were arrested last Saturday in Morong town, Rizal province after they were suspected to be New People’s Army (NPA) rebels.

“Ang pinaka concern naman at this point… is that hindi pinapapasok at hindi binibigyan ng access sinuman doon sa mga detained ngayong sa Camp Capinpin,” CHR Chairperson Leila de Lima said in an interview with radio dzMM on Monday.

“That’s very objectionable and in fact that is contrary to the law,” she added.

The relatives, lawyers and human rights defenders of several non-government organizations (NGOs) of the detained doctors and health workers were also not allowed to visit their kin at Camp Capinpin in Rizal.

“We will continue to assert [our visitorial rights], papakiusapan pa rin namin ang AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines). Within the day I will be launching a formal protest with the office of the chief of staff… We will really express our condemnation and our protest diyan sa pagharang sa amin dahil labag po iyon sa Constitution,” de Lima stated.

De Lima stressed that the CHR has guaranteed visitorial rights under Republic Act No. 7438. These, however, were not granted when the military prohibited the CHR-National Capital Region (NCR) team from entering the camp on Sunday.

The CHR team waited at Camp Capinpin from 11 a.m. until the afternoon, to no avail. They even showed their identification cards and mission order.

“I might be going there to Camp Capinpin kung di pa rin payagan. I myself will go there and assert the authority of our office.”

Clearance needed

The military said the CHR team has to present a written clearance from the AFP general headquarters before it can get access to the 43 detained health workers in Camp Capinpin.

“A clearance from the higher-ups,” the CHR chair commented.

“We do not need any clearance from any authority when we exercise our visitorial mandate. Kasi po, it diminishes yung constitutional powers namin and it defeats the purpose of our visitorial powers,” she declaired.

Before the CHR team was denied access to the camp, the group came from Morong, Rizal to do some onsite investigation on the arrest.

Security forces arrested the health workers, including 17 men and 26 women, while allegedly undergoing a bomb-making training in a rest house compound Saturday morning.

Joint police and military teams were supposed to serve a search warrant against a certain Mario Condes in Barangay Maybangcal, Morong town, when the security forces chanced upon the 43 people.

Col. Aurelio Baladad of the Philippine Army's 202nd Infantry Brigade told abs-cbnNEWS.com that some of the suspects were caught in act of holding some bomb-making materials.

The arrested health workers were then brought to Camp Capinpin.

Writ of amparo

De Lima also disclosed that the families of the detained persons will file a writ of amparo petition in order to provide immediate relief to the health workers.

“That is really an appropriate legal move,” she commented.

“This is to protect the life and security of persons. Since they’re detained, their right to security has been violated so especially if it’s proven that their arrest is illegal, then the writ would be issued. That would probably give them the relief,” she explained.

She also pointed out that the CHR is investigating the arrest, which is deemed as illegal because authorities had a search warrant but no warrant of arrest. She also said that the relatives complained about the manner of arrest.

“We will continue to pressure the military to allow us entry and access to these detained persons because we would want to check on their condition. Unless the military is hiding something, wala talaga silang justification to such denial of access.”