E/GN.4/1991/17 page 73 just as in the case of common crimes it is the police which gathers the evidence and it is the fiscal's office which decides whether, on the basis of the evidence, a case will be brought against the respondent, it is the task of the Commission on Human Rights to collect evidence with regard to human rights violations, but the power to decide whether this evidence is sufficient basis for a prosecution should be left with the fiscal's office. Giving powers of prosecution to the Commission would give it a dual function which could be in violation of the principle of "due process". In spite of these objections, several members of Congress were of the opinion that the Commission on Human Rights should eventually be given prosecutory powers, since the present procedure is complicated and time consuming. As an intermediary solution the Department of Justice deputized the lawyers of the Commission as Special Prosecutors. This means that the Commission lawyers can file complaints directly with the fiscals upon the determination of a prima facie case of a human rights violation. The decision to prosecute, however, is still made by the fiscal. Although according to the Commission on Human Rights this measure has hastened the prosecution of human rights offenders as well as simplified the process of monitoring human rights cases, other sources expressed concern about the slow processing of complaints and about the fact that the Commission, in considering such complaints and determining whether there is a prima facie case, acted too much as a quasi-judicial body in a dispute between the applicant and the respondent, instead of taking up the case of the alleged victim of a human rights violation. In order to speed up the processing of human rights cases the Secretary of Justice issued on 19 April 1990 a list of prosecutors designated to handle human rights cases in all cities and provinces. 226. Another important power of the Commission on Human Rights is the issuance of clearances for military or police officers who are candidates for promotion, stating that they have a clean record with regard to human rights violations. 227. By administrative order of 13 December 1988, the President established a Presidential Human Rights Committee with the mandate to monitor, on a continuing basis, the human rights situation in the country and to advise the President on the proper measures that ought to be taken without delay. The Committee is chaired by the Secretary of Justice and is further composed of the Chairman of the Commission on Human Rights, the Presidential Legal Counsel, one representative each for the Department of National Defense, the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Senate and the House of Representatives, and two representatives of private human rights groups. The Committee has prepared, inter alia, a memorandum of agreement allowing the non-governmental Medical Action Group (MAG) to give medical aid in evacuation centres and places of detention and guidelines on evacuations as a result of military operations. It may be noted, however, that after his return from the Philippines, the Special Rapporteur received information that, in spite of this agreement, members of a MAG medical team were allegedly arrested, questioned and ill-treated during a visit to a gaol they carried out on 14 November 1990. 228. Mention should be made of various legislative measures which are either pending before Congress or are under consideration. One of these is a Bill Providing for a Witness and Benefit Programme to which a person can be admitted if he is subjected to threats of bodily injury or there is a