Arroyo liable for ‘abuse’ of child offenders group 
August 15, 2005
Despite the Ombudsman “clearing” her, President Arroyo still has to bear command responsibility for the lumping of child offenders with adults in jails.
According to the Coalition to Stop Child Detention Through Restorative Justice, an umbrella organization of 26 human rights groups, command responsibility is accepted in international law.
“As a generally accepted principle of international law, command responsibility, which imputes criminal responsibility upon heads of states, civilian authorities and military commanders for their failure to prevent and punish their subordinates who perpetrate crimes against humanity and war crimes when they actually knew or were in a position to know the atrocities or serious human rights violations, forms part of the law of the land,” it said.
The group added the command responsibility doctrine is even found in Article II, Section 2 of the Philippine Constitution.
Because of this, the President and top government and police officials are culpable for the wanton violation of the children's human rights on a national scale, it noted.
The group maintained Mrs. Arroyo and the officials concerned actually knew and were in a position to know this fact especially in light of the official pronouncement of the Office of the President.
It noted that then spokesman Ricardo Saludo told a press conference last Dec. 11, 2003 that Malacañang promised to remedy the situation.
“Mixing up children with adults has long been outlawed by the community of nations pursuant to the Convention on the Rights of the Child that has been ratified by all nations, save for the United States and Somalia, which lacks a duly constituted government to ratify the treaty. Yet, the US prohibits the jailing of children with adults,” the group added.
It said this only shows that this injustice has long been condemned by humankind on account of its sheer inhumanity as to sting humanity's conscience.
“Disparaging the criminalization and dehumanization of children who are being locked up by authorities with adult prisoners under sub-human conditions as purely 'speculative' just like what the Ombudsman has done in dismissing the children's complaint betrays its own utter insensitivity to the human rights of child prisoners. Despite its own constitutionally decreed independence, it is lamentable that the Ombudsman refused to consider as a matter of judicial notice that the jailing of children with adults is inimical and prejudicial — unduly injurious — to their psychological, emotional, moral, spiritual, social and physical development and well-being, that is why the world community has outlawed this gruesome practice,” the group said.
It noted that the doctrine of command responsibility as laid down in the landmark case involving Yamashita, the Nuremberg Charter, the Pinochet doctrine, the jurisprudence hammered out by the International Criminal Tribunal, “pins down the President, the secretaries of the Department of Interior and Local Governments and the Department of Justice, as well as the chief of the Philippine National Police for their conspiratorial acquiescence, tacit consent to, and criminal neglect to stop the jailing of thousands of children belonging to the poorest of the poor in police jails swarming with adult prisoners nationwide.”
The group said no justification exists for Mrs. Arroyo and top police and government officials to continue trampling upon the dignity and humanity of children in conflict with the law.
It added despite the Ombudsman's ruling, the President and top officials are accountable for the flagrant violation of the child prisoners' human rights due to command responsibility.
According to the group, this is a betrayal of the Ombudsman's duty to promote the best interests of the child, adding “in the process, the Ombudsman may be endangering 13,300 to 20,000 children every year.
“The Ombudsman's order opens up the floodgates for more gruesome violations of children's human rights since the barbaric practice of jailing children with adults spurs children's complaints of being tortured, raped, tattooed, and subjected to myriad forms of abuse by the police as well as adult prisoners with impunity due to the lack of effective grassroots mechanisms to prevent and remedy such onslaughts against children. This order effectively strips children prisoners of effective avenues of redress for this serious form of human rights violation that the Ombudsman itself condones by shielding the President and top officials from any culpability,” it said. Francis jay m. Bilowan
