By MYLAH REYES ROQUE
THE Manila policeman dismissed from the service after he was caught on video allegedly torturing a theft suspect at a Tondo police station is now teaching—in a college for would-be policemen.
Police Inspector Joselito Binayug is a part-time instructor at the privately run Philippine College of Criminology-Manila Law College (PCCR-MLC), where he has been teaching Crime Detection Investigation since June.
The Philippine National Police dismissed Binayug from the service on Jan. 14, 2011 after Task Force Asuncion, which was formed to investigate allegations of torture at the Asuncion police station, confirmed that he was the policeman in the video. The footage showed a naked man lying on the floor of the police station, and was leaked to a TV station and the Internet in August.
Binayug has appealed his dismissal. He also faces a criminal complaint at the Department of Justice and an administrative case at the National Police Commssion.
Lawyer Ramil G. Gabao, dean of the PCCR, said the college was aware of the circumstances of Binayug’s dismissal but still hired him “based on an assurance from his end that all the cases filed against him were dismissed.”
He said the college would now conduct its own investigation on the status of the cases filed against the former Manila policeman.
Gabao said hiring police officers with pending cases is not unusual in his institution, where most professors are active police officers.
“We are very much aware and we understand their predicament that as long as you are a police officer, it is inevitable that you will be involved in many cases. We don’t want to prejudge whatever is the status of the case of Professor Binayug,” he said.
Commission on Human Rights Chairperson Loretta Ann Rosales expressed shock over the college’s hiring of Binayug.
She told VERA Files, “The CHR has a problem with that, and we will write the president of that college. There is a pending case for torture against Binayug. How does he teach? What is he teaching? There is an apparent disregard for the importance of teaching human rights, considering that 49 percent of reported human rights violations (in 2001-2010) were committed by policemen.”
The CHR investigated the torture case based on the complaint filed by the family of Darius Evangelista, 30, who disappeared on Mar. 5, 2010.
His widow, Margie, 28, told the CHR that Darius was the man seen in the video squirming as his genitals were tied to a string and pulled by a person said to be Binayug.
Clarita Carlos, a professor of political science at the University of the Philippines, expressed offense over Binayug’s employment as a teacher.
“A teacher is a person of integrity; you don’t need to be teaching ethics to know that. With all these accusations hanging on his head, he has no business teaching,” said Carlos, who was also president of the National Defense College of the Philippines from 1998 to 2001.
Chief Superintendent Clarence Guinto, chief of the PNP Human Rights Affairs Office, said, however, there is no legal impediment to Binayug’s application for employment despite his dismissal from the police service and the pending complaints against him at the DOJ and Napolcom.
“Only the Civil Service Commission, Ombudsman and the courts can disqualify one from working in the government but there is no such bar at present for him. (Binayug) has every right to look for a job. The question is the school’s propriety or ethics in hiring Binayug,” he said.
Another family has claimed that the victim in the video is Vicente Orbigo, and has filed a complaint at the Napolcom where it is pending.
The DOJ is expected to announce anytime now its decision on whether or not to file charges of torture against Binayug, as well as his immediate superior, Supt. Ernesto V. Tendero Jr., and seven other colleagues: Supt. Rogelio T. Rosales, SPO3 Joaquin M. de Guzman, SPO1 Rodolfo S. Ong, SPO1 Burt N. Tupas, SPO1 Dante F. Bautista, PO1 Nonito B. Binayug and PO1 Rex C. Binayug. Nonito is Binayug’s younger brother while Rex is a relative.
Based on his PNP Personal Data Sheet submitted to State Prosecutor Philip Kimpo, Binayug has the professional experience to teach.
He received 10 medals and commendations in the past 10 years of service as a policeman. He served the last seven years at four police stations in Manila: Sta. Cruz, Malate, Ermita and Moriones. At the time of his dismissal, he was precinct commander of the Asuncion Police Community Precinct, which is under the supervision of Police Station 2 in Moriones.
Binayug has not responded to several VERA Files requests for an interview.
(This story is part of the VERA Files project “Human Rights Case Watch” supported by The Asia Foundation and the United States Agency for International Development.)