Senator Raffy Tulfo has urged the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) to identify and help wrongfully imprisoned indigent persons in the country who were abused by state authorities to attain freedom and get the right justice.
During the hearing of the Senate Committee on Finance on the 2025 budget of CHR, Tulfo shared that he regularly receives complaints on his radio program about poor people who rotted in jail because they were falsely accused by police authorities and are incapable of posting bail due to financial constraints.
The legislator added that these innocent Persons Deprived of Liberty (PDLs) are trapped in their situations because the lawyers assisting them from the Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) are overwhelmed by sheer number of clients. As a result, their court hearings are frequently postponed, causing further delays in the legal process.
Notably, CHR failed to share data when asked by the lawmaker to give the number of innocent PDLS they were able to assist to freedom and the abusive state authorities that were successfully prosecuted and convicted after their monitoring.
“Investigate the cases of PDLs wrongly accused by authorities and coordinate with PAO lawyers to ensure swift justice for them.”
The senator told CHR Chair Atty. Richard Palpal-latoc to investigate the cases of PDLs wrongly accused by authorities and coordinate with PAO lawyers to ensure swift justice for them.
“There are cases wherein cops would allow PDLs to hurt fellow inmates to death and report otherwise.”
He also ordered Palpal-latoc to monitor and investigate cases of PDLs with questionable deaths, saying that there are cases wherein cops would allow PDLs to hurt fellow inmates to death and report otherwise.
Tulfo said Palpal-latoc should finalize the memorandum of agreement between CHR, Philippine National Police and the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) to require detention and prison cells all over the country to submit a report on PDLs who died under police custody for CHR to investigate. Palpal-latoc agreed to Tulfo’s proposal.
Finally, Tulfo said he is willing to support CHR’s 2025 budget as long as it would help indigent PDLs to get the justice they deserve and hold accountable abusive state authorities, particularly cops.
