MANILA: The Philippine justice secretary yesterday demanded an investigation after a woman was detained in a police prison for more than five years without charge.
Joanne Urbina was arrested along with a male suspect after police found 150 grammes of banned stimulants and marijuana at her Manila home on December 14, 2007, court records show.
The justice department decided not to press charges against the man, who was later freed, and failed to charge Urbina, who was 25 at the time and was released on June 11.
Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, who supervises the prison system, said she learnt of the case when Urbina was freed. She ordered a probe to determine if any official was criminally liable for the “inordinate and inexcusable delay in resolving the automatic review of the Urbina case”.
A ruling by the court of appeal drew comparisons with the US military jail Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, which holds “indefinite detainees”, terror suspects considered too dangerous to transfer from prison who cannot be tried in court. “More than five years of detention, without valid information filed in court, is unreasonable; it is intolerable; it is shockingly unimaginable. It smacks of persecution rather than prosecution,” the ruling read. “It conjures up images of Guantanamo Bay detainees who have never been allowed a speedy and fair trial, a civil right granted to all by the constitution.” AFP
