Prison rape: Authorities arrested a police officer who allegedly raped a female inmate in Atimonan, Quezon province, Thursday, November 28.
Dobol B of Super Radio dzBB reported on Thursday morning that authorities had arrested Police Master Sergeant Romulo Carpio after investigating the complaint of the female prisoner against the suspect.
During the initial investigation, the victim reported Monday that police officer Carpio had raped her.
Authorities immediately investigated the complaint and arrested the suspect who is now under the custody of the Quezon Provincial Police Office.
Prison rape in the Philippines
In 2009, journal Just Detention Internation (Rape is not part of the Penalty), published a study on sexual abuse inside the country’s prison. It is entitled, “An Emerging Human Rights Crisis: Sexual Violence in Philippine Detention Facilities.”
In one of the few official studies conducted on prisoner rape in the Philippines, four percent of 552 female jail inmates surveyed reported to the DILG that they had experienced sexual abuse while detained. Seven of the women had been raped, while others were subjected to abusive conduct, including sexual touching, kissing, corrections officials exposing their genitalia, and attempted rape. A more recent study found that ten percent of the women detainees surveyed had had sex with jail officials before their transfer to the Correctional Institution for Women (CIW), illuminating the widespread abuse of women inmates by corrections staff.
In 2001, in response to these and other reports of sexual abuse of women in detention by police, military, and prison officials, the CHR released the human rights advisory On the Sexual Abuse and Torture of Women in Custody, which noted that women who are prostitutes and those who have committed minor crimes or are alleged to have violated the Philippines’ anti-vagrancy law are among those most likely to be subjected to sexual violence in custody. Such abuses have continued unabated, despite government efforts to address sexual violence against detainees, including a 2001 pronouncement by the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) that it had adopted a zero-tolerance policy toward staff sexual misconduct, and plans for the formation of a government task force on sexual violence against women in detention.