No visitors for De Lima for a month now, opposition senators cry foul

Senator Leila de Lima’s family and staff members have been barred from visiting her at the PNP Custodial Center for over a month now.

In a letter addressed to PNP chief Police General Archie Gamboa on May 23, Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon, Senator Risa Hontiveros and Senator Francis Pangilinan said de Lima has been restricted from visitors and physical meetings with anyone since April 25.

The senators said this was on top of De Lima being subject to other restrictions since the start of the Luzon-wide enhanced community quarantine on March 15.

They said this was basically an "incommunicado detention or solitary confinement," which is prohibited under the Article III, Section 12(2) of the 1987 Constitution, which states that “[s]ecret detention places, solitary, incommunicado, or other similar forms of detention are prohibited."

The senators said de Lima has already requested the lifting of the restrictions to the PNP Custodial Center chief, but it was allegedly denied on the pretext of enforcing the metro-wide modified enhanced community quarantine within the PNP Custodial Center in Camp Crame.

"This action of the PNP Custodial Center is unconstitutional, illegal, and violates a cardinal precept of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights that solitary confinement and incommunicado detention are universally outlawed," the senators said.

The senators asked for necessary remedial action on the matter and that the PNP may “deem appropriate” under the circumstances.

“We believe that the recommendations of Sen. de Lima contained in her letter to the Chief of Custodial Center are sound and reasonable as an alternative to the unconstitutional restrictions presently imposed upon her,” they said.

PNP spokesman Police Brigadier General Bernard Banac confirmed that visits for De Lima had been "temporarily restricted".

"Visits are temporarily restricted under ECQ/MECQ as part of biosafety measures to prevent spread of Covid19 inside PNP camps and police stations," Banac told GMA News Online. -Ma. Angelica Garcia/NB, GMA News