Font size: 
Tohamie Ulong and Jimmy Balulao, aged 16 and 15 at the time of their arrest, were acquitted of any crime, along with Ting Idar and Esmael Mamalangkas. The fifth detainee, Toto Akmad, was convicted of involvement in one of the two bomb blasts.
Days after they were held in a military camp in Cotabato City following their arrest in April 2003, they were taken to the headquarters of the police's Criminal Investigation and Detection Group in Davao City, where they were held for some time before being transferred to Maa City jail, a regular detention center, to face trial.
I still vividly remember the day I first met them in the high-security jail, supposedly for high-risk detainees, in 2003. They were distraught and visibly ailing. For anyone accused of involvement in a bombing, particularly in central Mindanao province, the probability of being tortured in prison is high.
Though it is common knowledge that bomb suspects are routinely held in safe houses or military camps, where they are questioned in the absence of a lawyer and tortured and coerced into admitting the crime, getting such facts firsthand is extremely difficult. Media reports that quote the official version of events are often distorted, false and concocted because they are largely the version of the military or the police.
When I spoke to the accused at the police headquarters in Davao they could still recall, despite horrible experiences that one would generally want to forget, how they were inhumanely treated and tortured at the military camp in Cotabato City at the hands of the policemen. I took notes of their testimonies, as I was able to interview each of them, and wrote a sworn statement for them to sign.
The five men belong to an ethnic minority known as the Moro, from the southern part of Mindanao. Moro people are the usual suspects of bomb blasts. They hardly have any education and can barely write their names. Some are illiterate and cannot read or write. I had to assist one of the men to put his thumb impression on the testimony.
I wish to share some of their testimonies, which I kept for years. This is to give an idea of how they were tortured and how the military and the police tried hard to prevent their stories from being made public.
Jimmy Balulao was 15 years old at the time of his arrest:
"I was blindfolded with a cloth and masking tape, interrogated and tortured inside the 6th ID camp (Cotabato City) and forced to admit participation in Davao International Airport bombing and Sasa wharf bombing; they placed my belt on my neck and pulled it upward to strangle me until I could already hardly breathe; dragged near a dog pen and I was threatened to be fed to the dogs every time I denied any involvement; one of my abductors keep on hitting my elbow with a hard object until it got numb; I was made to lie on the cement floor while three bullets were placed between my three left fingers and then it was pressed which was very painful; an object was placed on my lap which according to them was a bomb; they did this twice. I was complaining of my body pains but I was not allowed to be examined."Ting Idar:
"I was placed in a room where I was tortured; one of my abductors placed an object on my lap to frighten me, which according to him was a bomb, but it did not explode when it fell to the floor; they repeatedly mauled me and placed a rope around my neck which they pulled up every now and then, until I could not breath anymore; they again placed an object on my lap which according to them was a bomb and they let me sit on the bowl inside a comfort room; then they brought me out of the comfort room and they threatened to electrocute me if I did not admit my participation in the said bombings; they electrocuted my left foot, which caused me intense pain and I almost lost consciousness."
Esmael Mamalangkas:
"They punched and kicked me in different parts of my body while I was blindfolded with a cloth and a masking tape; I was forced and tortured by my abductors to admit participation in the said incidents; as I did not have anything to do with it they repeatedly mauled me. In spite of my complaint for body pains I was not allowed to be examined until my head and body contusions were gone."
When I went back the following day to the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group office to have the torture victims sign the statement, a man whom I only remember now as Senior Police Officer Gabunada confiscated all the sworn statements, including some already signed by the victims in the presence of their lawyer. Gabunada and his colleagues told me to leave the office, as they were extremely upset.
I informed my colleague about the incident and we informed a local newspaper, which published the story the following day and later filed charges against Gabunada before the Internal Affairs Service, a complaint mechanism with the Philippine National Police. While the IAS reprimanded Gabunada for his actions, none of those who tortured the victims were prosecuted in court.
Unfortunately, the regional office of the Commission on Human Rights in Davao City did not investigate the victims' allegations of torture against the military and the police. In justifying its lack of action, the commission said that the court in Davao City, where charges against the victims were filed, could cite them for contempt if they investigated. They argued that they could not intervene because the victims faced criminal charges.
In the Philippines, torture was made a criminal offense in November 2009. Now that torture has been criminalized and the five victims have been acquitted after nearly seven years, there is no excuse for the Commission on Human Rights not to take action in this case. For years it was complicit in depriving the victims of a remedy to their situation. It tolerated the actions of the military and the police by refusing to investigate.
In the Philippines there is a law that provides compensation for victims of torture and unjust imprisonment. However, the Republic Act 7309 or the Board of Claims only grants compensation to persons who are tortured, illegally detained and later convicted, but not those acquitted by local courts. Thus Akmad could probably claim compensation later, but not the other four.
The four victims have been acquitted and can now walk free. But the years spent behind bars, particularly by the two boys, and the time spent on the legal battle for exoneration, cannot be reversed. No form of compensation is good enough to give them back their previous lives.
Deep appreciation goes to the victims' legal counsel, Hamlet Pahm, a lawyer based in Cotabato City, for his hard work to exonerate and free the victims.
--
(Pepe Panglao, a journalist for many years in Mindanao in the southern Philippines, is based in Metro Manila. He seeks to share the issues facing Filipinos throughout the country with the international community.)
