News reports that the Naga City's Public Safety Office (PSO) Chairman and personnel have detained and subsequently interrogated a group of minors without the presence of their parents or adult-guardians, have caused much alarm because of such actions' unlawful character and violation of the minors' human rights.
PSO Chairman Lito Del Rosario has in fact been officially charged at the office of the Commission of Human Rights for violating the said minors' rights.
On August 22, a day after a string of burglaries at the offices of Naga City Hall had been reported to the police, Del Rosario and PSO personnel had accosted three minors who were at the compound of the Naga City Hall intending to pick malunggay leaves. A news report had quoted Del Rosario of admitting that indeed they had brought into their office the three minors for loitering at the said compound. In the same news report, Del Rosario is reported to have stated that in the course of their "questioning," one of the minors confessed to taking part in the said crime. Thereafter, the PSO head with some personnel proceeded to the minor's house and conducted a search of the premises without a legal warrant.
While there are further accusations of manhandling made against Del Rosario and the PSO, that the minors were detained and questioned already constitute violations against their rights which are stipulated in the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act of 2006. The said Republic Act states in Sec. 5 that "a child in conflict with the law has the right not to be deprived, unlawfully or arbitrarily, of his/her liberty." Similarly, the same law provides in Sec. 21 that "From the moment a child is taken into custody, the law enforcement officer shall: (a) Explain to the child in simple language and in a dialect that he/she can understand why he/she is being placed under custody and the offense that he/she allegedly committed; (b) Inform the child of the reason for such custody and advise the child of his/her constitutional rights in a language or dialect understood by him/her."
More importantly, Sec. 22 states that "The taking of the statement of the child shall be conducted in the presence of the following: (1) child's counsel of choice or in the absence thereof, a lawyer from the Public Attorney's Office; (2) the child's parents, guardian, or nearest relative, as the case may be; and (3) the local social welfare and development officer."
In other words, to detain a minor for suspicion of a crime and then to question or interrogate them require certain legal conditions; conditions which, in this particular case involving Del Rosario and the PSO, were not present according to news reports.
Del Rosario has been entrusted with a very privileged position as Chairman of the Public Safety Office of Naga City. While the said office has been criticized for being superfluous because of the presence of local PNP forces, this recent incident further underscores that superfluousness as well as the supreme precariousness of Del Rosario's position: placed in charge of the public safety of Naga (a responsibility that is primarily that of Naga PNP), his conduct as PSO Chairman must instill a sense of protection of people's-and most specially, children's and women's-rights. His conduct must not further lend credence to the prevalent perception that the PSO and its Chair are simply security personnel beholden to no law and no one except the City mayor.