De Lima calls for probe on secret jail cell in Manila police station

Senator Leila de Lima on Wednesday called for a Senate investigation on the discovery of a "secret jail facility" at the Manila Police District Station 1.

De Lima filed Proposed Senate Resolution (PSR) 357 directing the appropriate Senate committee to conduct an inquiry in aid of legislation on the alleged detention facility found in the said police station.

“Wilfully keeping detainees in secret detention places and subjecting them to deplorable conditions, despite State sanctions against such, are condemnable and go against the sworn duties of law enforcers,” De Lima said in a news release.

“It is the State’s obligation to ensure its citizens’ freedom to live with dignity, as enshrined in the 1987 Constitution and international conventions the State is party to.  Humane treatment of persons cannot be compromised even during operations against suspected offenders,” she added.

De Lima said the discovery of the hidden cell "validates the existence of tokhang-for-ransom as well as the police vigilantes' pay-per-kill system."

“This is us spiraling down the bottomless pit of impunity and lawlessness, with the former law enforcers turned enforcers of lawlessness profiting from it. This is a call for our people to wake up and see the bitter truth: change has come, but not the kind we were promised or were hoping for,” she said.

The senator also mentioned before that the discovery of the supposed secret detention cell as a "complete breakdown of the rule of law in the country."

The secret jail cell was discovered behind a bookshelf inside the Raxabago Police Station in Tondo, Manila.

The inmates claimed cops asked them to pay P40,000 to P200,000 in exchange for their freedom.

Meanwhile, earlier reports said the Senate public order committee headed by Senator Panfilo Lacson would already be conducting a probe on the hidden jail cell. — Anna Felicia Bajo/MDM, GMA News