MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine National Police (PNP) has asked a judge to reconsider her order transferring 38 suspected rebels from the military to police custody.

"We are filing an omnibus motion with the leave of court...for the commitment of those who were accused in the Morong incident," Chief Supt. Leonardo Espina, PNP public information officer, told reporters in Camp Crame.

He said the PNP is asking Judge Amorfina Cerrado-Cezar of Regional Trial Court Branch 78 to reconsider the order she issued last April 23 instructing the police to take custody of a group of suspected rebels collectively known as the Morong 43.

Espina said that it was not the PNP's mandate to take care of prisoners and put them into custody, which is the responsibility of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP).

"Our custodial center here is not for the purpose of detaining prisoners for a very long time," Espina explained. "It is just a custodial center for temporary detention of those who are going to be incarcerated or detained in jail facilities mandated by law for a longer period of time or for those awaiting the commitment order of the proper courts."

Espina said they also informed the judge in their motion that the PNP had already requested the Court Administrator of the Supreme Court to issue a memorandum instructing all the courts in the country not to issue commitment orders to the PNP Custodial Center anymore.

"We are trying to unload everybody," he explained. "We are moving towards the direction of abolishing our custodial center."

As for the police taking custody of 38 of the Morong detainees, Espina said it could possibly lead to a violation of their constitutional rights.

He explained that the PNP Custodial Center can no longer accommodate more detainees.

"We would like to repeat that we are still holding 90 plus detainees here which we are requesting to be detained and committed to the BJMP," he said. "The maximum that we could hold here is 96. This includes 8 female prisoners. In the Morong case, we have heard that they have 22 females there. Adding to the 8 females that we have here to the 22 for a total of 30. How could we possibly accommodate that number? That's a violation of the constitutional rights of prisoners not to be detained in subhuman standards."