EDITORIAL - Strip search

How complicated can it be to strip-search a woman suspected of transporting drugs? Policewomen are supposed to be assigned to this task. For the average female police officer, knowing where to look and how to go about it should be intuitive.

So why should police officers – whether male or female – need to hire a woman for a demonstration of a strip search? A mannequin can be used. The internet also has many sites on female strip searches, some of which provide information on a woman’s anatomy and potential places of concealment for drugs.

A strip search demonstration was the sorry excuse given by four police officers at the Makati police station who were caught on video smirking as they made a naked woman bend over. It is still unclear if the woman was a drug suspect arrested in March last year, as initially reported, or someone hired precisely for the “demonstration.” The Makati police presented a woman who claimed she was not a drug mule and was simply hired for the demonstration, but she said she did not know the incident would be recorded on video.

The only positive development in this sordid incident is that four of the police officers involved have been sacked. It’s doubly disappointing, however, that two of the four are policewomen who should have spoken up for the rights of women and persons in police custody.

Police Officers 1 Stephanie Limhap and Heizelle Maramag now have a lot of time to ponder those rights as they face investigation together with PO1 Francis Intia and Senior Inspector Valmark Funelas, who headed the Makati police Station Drug Enforcement Unit where the incident took place.

After relieving the four, top officials of the Philippine National Police have stressed that there is no room for such behavior in the police service. The incident, however, was just one of the milder cases of human rights abuses committed by PNP members. The challenge for the PNP leadership is to ensure that the avowed respect for human rights is clearly understood down the ranks.