Press Release
February 6, 2007

SENATE RAISES COMPENSATION FOR PERSONS
WRONGFULLY ARRESTED AS TERROR SUSPECTS

The Senate has raised the amount of compensation or damages for persons erroneously arrested and detained after being tagged by law enforcement authorities as terrorist suspects.

Sen. Aquilino Q. Pimentel, Jr. (PDP-Laban) said Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile has accepted his proposal to raise from P50,000 to P500,000 the amount of compensation that should be given to any suspect for each day that he or she is illegally detained.

This is one of several amendments to the proposed Anti-Terrorist Act presented by Pimentel, accepted by Enrile and adopted by the Senate to make the controversial legislation less repugnant and less susceptible to abuse of human rights.

The purpose of this amendment is to ensure that law enforcers exercise utmost caution in arresting and detaining persons suspected of terrorist activities without formal charges and warrant from the courts. This is intended as a safeguard against unwarranted deprivation of liberty and other violation of human rights, specially of innocent individuals, Pimentel explained.

Based on the amendment, the amount of damages shall be automatically charged against the appropriations of the police agency or the anti-terrorism council that brought or sanctioned the filing of the charges against the suspect.

The amount shall be released within 15 days from the date of the acquittal of the accused. The award of damages shall be without prejudice to the right of the accused to file criminal or administration charges against those responsible for charging him with the case of terrorism, the minority leader said.

The amendment also states that any officer or employee of the law enforcement agency concerned who delays the release or refuses to release the amount of compensation awarded to the individual acquitted of the crime of terrorism shall be penalized with six months of imprisonment.

It further provides that in case available funds in the law enforcement agency responsible for the wrongful arrest and detention is insufficient to compensate the cleared suspect, the amount needed to complete the compensation shall be taken from the current appropriations for intelligence, emergency, social or other funds of the Office of the President.

A separate amendment introduced by Pimentel to which Enrile also concurred provides that upon the acquittal of the suspect who was wrongfully arrested, the amount of P50,000 a day shall be paid to him covering the period in which his properties, assets or funds were seized in accordance with the concept of liquidated damages. The amount shall be taken from the appropriations of the police or law enforcement agency that filed or caused the filing of the charges against the suspect.

Under the amended bill, a terrorist suspect arrested and detained without court warrant or formal charges can not be detained longer than three days. Originally, Enrile had proposed a maximum of 15-day detention for the suspect without the need for formal criminal charges.

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