By ANNE MARXZE D. UMIL
Bulatlat.com

MANILA – ACT Teachers Partylist Rep. France Castro demanded a public apology and retraction of a memorandum reportedly released by the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) ordering jail officers to closely monitor detained “suspected Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) members.”

“This is a dangerous and malicious act of red-tagging by the BJMP. They are using an unverified social media post from a discredited source to justify surveillance and monitoring of a sitting member of Congress and political prisoners,” Castro said in a statement.

The BJMP based the memo on an apparent Facebook post by retired Lt. Gen. Antonio Parlade Jr.’s alleging that Castro has been “frequenting jail facilities to solicit funds from drug traffickers for her group through the detained suspected CPP members.”

The BJMP memo was dated January 10 signed by Jail Chief Superintendent Clint Russel A. Tangers, CESE, regional director of the Jail Bureau.

In reaction, Fides Lim, spokesperson of Kapatid, a support group for political prisoners asked, “Since when did fake news peddled by a notorious red-tagger constitute a source of evidence that the BJMP should order wardens to act on it?”

“Coming as it does in an election year, the memo issued by the BJMP regional director is a clear case of political partisanship and illegal electioneering, disguised as a security measure,” Lim said.

Lim warned that “the same baseless accusations linking former Senator Leila De Lima to drug lords were used to justify her wrongful imprisonment for six years.”

“And now, the BJMP is complicit in a similar pattern of targeting government critics with no evidence,” she added.

Memorandum violates international and domestic human rights laws

The National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers meanwhile said it is both ludicrous and deeply concerning that a government agency tasked with overseeing jail management would consider an unverified Facebook post from what they described as “an unreformed red-tagger as sufficient basis for policy.”

The NUPL said that the memorandum violates both the international and domestic human rights laws.

“They undermine the presumption of innocence enshrined in the Constitution (Article III, Section 14) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) by imposing punitive measures without trial. They also violate the right to privacy and human dignity, as affirmed in the ICCPR (Article 17), by subjecting detainees to invasive surveillance and severely restricting essential correspondence and visitor interactions,” the lawyers group said.

“Moreover, obstructing access to legal representation, a right guaranteed under the Constitution (Article III, Section 12), further compromises detainees’ right to fair trial. The psychological toll inflicted by isolation and heightened monitoring amounts to cruel and degrading treatment,” they added.

The reported memo also violates the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (the Mandela Rules), which emphasize humane treatment, access to legal counsel, and freedom from degrading practices, the NUPL said. “Specifically, Rule 61 of these Rules mandates that prisoners’ correspondence and communication must not be unduly restricted unless justified by legitimate disciplinary or security concerns, which this memorandum fails to establish.”

Human rights group Karapatan also wrote a letter to Tangeres lambasting “blatant violation of domestic and international human rights instruments.” A copy was also furnished to the Commission of Human Rights. The group demanded that the reported memorandum be rescinded.

“Being red-tagged while under state custody doubly poses serious threats to the political prisoners’ life and security,” Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay said.

She cited a case where a political prisoner was abducted in a jail facility in Batangas, saying the incident may well have been facilitated and organized by jail officials in cahoots with the military. She likewise cited a case where the wife of a political prisoner was arrested after jail officers planted evidence on her personal belongings.

The BJMP memorandum also ordered jail guards for stricter visitor screening procedures, including background checks and approval protocols. Palabay said cavity and body searches of visiting families and friends and other forms of civil liberty violations have been hampering the exercise of prisoners’ rights to access their loved ones.

And yet, she noted, military agents are allowed to frequent jails, and have easy access to political prisoners without their consent. “These military agents often threaten or harass political prisoners in order to coerce them to ‘surrender’ or become witnesses and even to take plea bargains,” said Palabay.

Prior to this BJMP memorandum, Castro has been a constant victim of harassment and intimidation. Apart from the judicial harassment she and other individuals faced after rescuing Lumad teachers and students in Talaingod, she also received death threats through text messages and phone calls especially at the height of the impeachment complaint against Vice President Sara Duterte. 

An ethics complaint was also filed against her last December.

Read: Complaint vs. teachers rep France Castro, a reprisal for exposing Duterte’s sins

Meanwhile, Castro said that if the BJMP fails to retract the memo and issue a public apology, “we will not hesitate to file appropriate charges, including administrative cases and claims for damages.”

“This memorandum demonstrates how red-tagging endangers lives and violates human rights. The BJMP must be held accountable for this

Former ACT Teachers Partylist representative Antonio Tinio also said that the BJMP officials can be held criminally, administratively, and civilly liable for relying on allegations from Parlade. He said that Parlade, along with Lorraine Badoy, was found guilty by the Ombudsman in March 2023 for conduct prejudicial to public service due to red-tagging. (RTS, RVO)