Tortured tales

A NAKED, bound, emaciated man doubling up, grimacing in pain at every tug of the string tied to his genitals.
Tuesday’s footage of ABS-CBN of the torture chamber that was identified as a police precinct in Tondo, Manila, the berdugo reported to be the commander himself opened a floodgate of chilling memories long frozen in the deep recesses of my mind.
I was about seven, in Grade 2, in the somnolent town of Sto. Tomas when a carabao rustler was caught in flagrante on the paddies at the back of our school.
Swift backwaters justice was done: jefe instructed one cabo to bend the suspect’s left knee and tied one end of a string to his big toe, another cabo to tie the other end to suspect’s genitals. Then, the left leg was pushed at the knee to make it straight, again and again and again till the cries of pain of the suspect were stilled by his loss of consciousness.
The suspect had to be carried to the municipio’s tiny jail where for weeks he could not even manage to sit.
In the Great Ferdinand’s martial law regime, the tales of torture filled volumes. Student activists who were rounded in the first swoop at the break of dawn of September 23, 1972 had uniform stories of torture, varying only in their brutality.
Small, thick-spectacled but thin-framed Ka Dario of the Kabataang Makabayan had two ribs cracked on top of the “water boarding” he was subjected to.
Water boarding goes thus: A person is strapped to an inclined board, with his feet raised and his head lowered, his arms and legs bound, his face – the nose and mouth, particularly – covered with a piece of cloth or towel. The torturer then repeatedly pours water onto the person's face, giving him a drowning sensation, the water choking him.
Another activist, Ka Roy of the Samahang Demokratiko ng Kabataan talked of being made to sit – naked – on blocks of ice inside a windowless air-conditioned cell with an electric fan directed at him. This after being tied spread-eagled and naked on a table, wax from lighted candles poured all over him even as he was made to sing Lupang Hinirang.
Then there was the kuryente: electrodes taped on the nipples and genitals and electric current passed through them
No, I was not tortured when it was my turn to be interrogated at the Pampanga Constabulary Command. The nearest I got to it was via romanza militar: getting slapped at the back of the head and on the cheeks at every reply to questions my interrogators deemed as wrong; having my face shoved between iron bars of cells where other activists were detained as the interrogator asked them if they knew me.
In the anti-insurgency campaign of the ‘80s, torture took some other forms as this “novelized” account in my 2004 book Brigada 45:
Samyo ng pritong manok at matinis na halakhakan ang gumising sa kamalayan ng nakabaluktot na si Dolfo. Higit sa mga pasa at sakit ng kalamnan, damdam niya bigla ang kalam ng sikmura sa kagutuman, ang hapdi ng lalamunan sa uhaw. Matapos bugbugin kamakalawa pa, minsan lamang siyang binigyan ng pagkain – kalahating mangkok ng pansit, at inumin – isang tasang tubig-poso.
...Biglang pasok si Major Catap, kasunod ang isang pulis na dala-dala’y dalawang malalaking supot ng tinapay, tatlong lata ng Hunt’s pork and beans, Reno liver spread at Philips sausage.
...Lalong sumidhi ang kalam ng sikmura ni Dolfo nang makita ang pagkain. Hindi niya napigilan ang paglatak ng laway nang maamoy ang bagong lutong tinapay. Sa tindi ng gutom, bumigay ang tigas ng damdamin. Hangos na dinaluhong ang nakahain...Halos mauubos na niya ang isang supot ng tinapay nang bigla itong mabilaukan.
...Hawak ang isang pitsel ng malamig na tubig, ngising aso si Major Catap na inilapit ito sa mukha ni Dolfo, at patuyang: “Manigas ka, putang ina mo!”
Himas ang lalamunan, habol ang hininga, umuungol na nagmakaawa si Dolfo.
“Lumambot ka rin. Heto, ubusin mo.”
Pagkabigay ng pitsel, nilagok, sinaid ni Dolfo ang laman nito. Kagyat, naramdaman niya ang paglobo ng tiyan. Halos mapugto ang hininga sa sobrang kabusugan.
Mabilis ang kilos ni Sgt. Ganibe. Muntik nang tumiwarik sa pagkakaupo si Dolfo nang bigla siyang sinabunutan mula sa likuran . Sabay pisil sa ilong. Nagliliyad si Dolfo sa pag-apuhap ng hangin. Pulang-pula ang mukha. Tumitirik ang mga mata.
“Kakanta ka ba o kakantahn ka ng Ave Maria?”
Tatlong sunud-sunod na tango, bago tuluyang nawalan ng ulirat si Dolfo.
“Hindi ka nakuha sa bugbog. Sa takaw ka lang pala bibigay.”Tubig at tinapay, pantawid ng buhay. Gamit torture ng militar.
Yes, systematic torture is a matter of national policy and practice in police states. As much a universal given as a universal wrong.
Yes, systematic torture is practiced by the state police. A travesty of the respect for human rights in a democracy. Thus, the universal condemnation the Tondo incident is getting now.
“Such actions do not have any place in an organization that espouses respect for human rights...Any form of brutality and abuse of authority by PNP personnel will not be tolerated and will be dealt with swiftly and decisively according to our own disciplinary rules and internal policy.” So declared Philippine National Police Director-General Jesus Verzosa in expressing his own condemnation of the incident.
So what has the PNP done?
Relieve the whole precinct and ordered that the relieved personnel be subjected to neuro-psychiatric evaluation, and be made to undergo the 30-day Character and Aptitude Development Training program at the PNP Values and Leadership School in Subic.
Yea, great. Velvet glove treatment for such grave misconduct as torturing suspects.
It makes us really wonder what sense of values the PNP leadership is impacting in the rank and file with actions like this. The public can’t help but be afraid. Be very afraid.