E/CN.4/1991/17
page 77
242. A member of the Court majority in an address to the Philippine Bar
Association defended the doctrine of continuing offence. He said that
rebellion and subversion are offences not usually constituted by single acts,
but by a succession of acts, since rebels and subversives plan and expect to
undertake a series of acts geared toward the attainment of their object. He
emphatically denied that arrests of persons may be made on mere suspicion that
they are rebels or subversives, or that their arrests deserve less than the
full attention and concern of the court.
243. Nevertheless, human rights organizations fear that there will be an
increase of arrests merely for being placed on the list of wanted persons by
the military. According to the military authorities, such lists - called
"orders of battle" - are established as a result of intelligence network
information and are thoroughly checked. However, since such lists are drawn
up unilaterally by the military authorities, concern was expressed by human
rights organizations that arrests without a warrant on the mere basis of a
person's inclusion in the list (which to them seems to be the substance of the
Court's ruling), will lead to substitution of the judgement of a judge with
the judgement of the police, the CAFGUs, CVOs or the military. It was feared
that such arbitrary arrests without judicial control might also lead to an
increase in the occurrence of torture.
244. In this respect attention was drawn to the fact that in many cases people
are arrested without warrant on suspicion of sedition or subversion and then,
since rebellion or sedition are difficult to prove, are charged with illegal
possession of firearms in furtherance of rebellion, which is an unbailable
offence. A person cannot be arrested for this offence without a warrant,
unless caught in flagrante. It was alleged that often, after a warrantless
arrest on suspicion of sedition, firearms were planted in the arrested
person's house or car, while in the meantime they could be interrogated about
their contacts, etc. It was also said that quite often such persons were
found to be innocent during trial, and, consequently, were acquitted.
245. Meanwhile, a motion for reconsideration of the decision on warrantless
arrests has been filed with the Supreme Court. The decision, therefore, is
not final.
246. If a person is arrested without a warrant, the arresting officer must
deliver such person to the proper judicial authority within a period ranging
from 12 to 36 hours, depending upon the penalty prescribed for the offence
(these terms do not apply for arrests upon warrant, since here the judge has
already evaluated the information filed). Moreover, each detained person
shall be informed of the cause of his detention and shall be allowed to
communicate and confer at any time privately with his attorney or counsel.
Non-compliance with these provisions is a punishable act (art. 125 of the
Revised Penal Code). Relatives of the arrested person also have the right to
visit him.
247. According to information received from a non-governmental organization,
torture is generally not practised in order to gain confessions nor to
prosecute cases against the victims, but mainly to obtain information.
According to the Constitution any confession or admission extracted by torture
or maltreatment is inadmissible in court. The Supreme Court has given
extremely strict rulings in this respect. It has even ruled that persons
willing to make a confession under oath must be medically examined before they
are sworn in.
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