MANILA, Philippines - President Aquino has signed into law a bill making enforced disappearance a criminal offense.
Aquino signed the bill last Wednesday, Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, the measure’s principal author in the House of Representatives, said yesterday.
“This is the first statute in Asia which criminalizes enforced disappearance,” Lagman said.
The bill became Republic Act No. 10350 or the “Anti-Enforced or Involuntary Disappearance Act of 2012.”
Lagman said the law makes involuntary disappearance a criminal offense separate from kidnapping, serious illegal detention, or murder.
He said the new crime has three principal elements: the victim is deprived of liberty, the perpetrator is the state or any of its agents, and information on the whereabouts of the victim is concealed or denied.
“The law seeks to end impunity of offenders even as it envisions a new or a better breed of military, police and civilian officials and employees who respect and defend the human rights and civil liberties of the people they are sworn to protect and serve and who observe the rule of law at all times,” he said.
He pointed out that the law also upholds the right to truth by requiring concerned public officers or private individuals to immediately issue a written certification to an inquiring person or entity on the presence or absence of the disappeared or provide information on his or her whereabouts.
It mandates investigators who learn that the subject of their investigation is a victim of enforced disappearance to disclose such information to his or her family, lawyer or human rights organization, he added.
It also provides free access to a periodically updated register of all detained or confined persons to those who have legitimate interest in the information recorded in the register, which the law requires to be maintained in all detention facilities, Lagman said.
“RA 10350 is a comprehensive legislation that does not only impose penal sanctions but also provides for restorative justice, pecuniary compensation to victims and their families, restitution of honor, and psychosocial rehabilitation for both victims and offenders,” he stressed.
The more publicized cases of enforced disappearance are those of Jonas Burgos and two female UP students, Karen Empeño and Sherlyn Cadapan.
The Commission on Appointments has not confirmed the promotion of a military officer being linked to Burgos’ disappearance.
Retired major general Jovito Palparan, who is wanted in the case of the missing UP students, has so far evaded the authorities. There is suspicion that some colleagues in the military are coddling Palparan.