NOT long ago, inmates of the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center became known the world over. They had a series of viral videos—with several million views—showing them dancing to popular tunes.
It was refreshing to see prisoners making good use of their time. There were healthy, worthwhile things to do in jail, and learning choreographed dance steps was one of them.
The same prison facility is in the spotlight again these days—but for reasons less upbeat.
Circulating on the internet are photos of prisoners of the CPDRC sitting cross-legged and naked on the floor of the prison gymnasium. The inmates were ordered to take their clothes off before being gathered and made to sit on the concrete floor.
The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency conducted the search in its attempt to look for drugs and other contraband in the compound.
PDEA Region 7 director Yogi Ruiz said they decided to use this search method because he did not want to risk his agents’ safety in the event inmates hid weapons or started riots.
The PDEA spokesman in fact said the stripping was upon the orders of the provincial governor.
And indeed the search turned up 80 cellphone units, laptops, bladed weapons, P90,000 cash, and 19 sachets of suspected shabu from the cells of over 3,000 inmates. The warden has been sacked after the discovery of these items.
Human rights groups protest. Amnesty International said the incident clearly amounted to cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment of prisoners. Human Rights Watch, meanwhile, said international standards prohibited searches that intimidated or unnecessarily intruded upon a prisoner’s privacy.
Where, then, do we draw the line between enforcing order and protecting people’s—even prisoners’—basic human rights?
The sight of rows upon rows of naked prisoners conjured ugly thoughts of concentration camps where prisoners were no more than bodies, worse, numbers.
Nobody denies the need to curb the drug menace, specifically when it breeds corruption in places that are supposed to rehabilitate people who have violated the law. But there must be a more decent way.
This latest stunt is an apt metaphor for what is going on in the country: People are naked, helpless and vulnerable, completely under the control of state agents who do whatever they please, in the name of some so-called good but through methods that are tyrannical, questionable, and just plain wrong.