5 November 1999

HON. ORLANDO MERCADO
Secretary
Department of National Defense
Camp Aguinaldo, Quezon City

Dear Sec. Mercado:

We bring to your immediate attention and denounce in the strongest possible terms the continuing violations of the basic rights and the inhuman and even barbaric treatment of our client, MR. LEONCIO "Leonardo" PITAO a.k.a. Kumander Parago Sandoval who is presently in the custody of the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP).

In the evening of 3 November 1999, we attempted twice upon request to visit and confer with our client at the ISAFP detention center upon receipt of verified information that he was being held there but we were denied access. (Attached for your reference is our letter to the ISAFP dated 4 November 1999.)

It appears that certain officers and men with the ISAFP, at the behest and instruction of higher authorities, had unabashedly misrepresented to us the whereabouts of our client in an obvious design to deny him of his right to counsel and to other basic rights. It turned out that our client was already at the ISAFP compound and/or detention center at that time and was still being subjected to another continuing, hostile and intense tactical interrogation to extract to the pulp whatever information from him under extreme duress and without the benefit of counsel and respect for his other rights.

Mr. Pitao was held incommunicado for about 34 hours before he was belatedly told that his lawyers had gone to see him. As if these were not enough, our client, who is suffering from a stinging headache and consuming pain from an old bullet wound, was not allowed to sleep for hours on end and was given his first meal from the time of his arrest only after 19 hours.

Yesterday afternoon, we were finally allowed to see and confer with our client but not without the usual run-around. Nonetheless, we were appalled that - notwithstanding our continuing protestations - we could not fully exercise our right to freely confer with him as a certain Capt. Antonio, ISAFP Command Duty Officer, would not leave us alone to speak with our client in private even as the said officer and the head of the arresting team, a certain Col. Eric Palabrica of the MIG, refused to take out our client from the corridor of his humid and cramped cell to the adjacent reception area where visits are usually done and even as they refused to remove his handcuffs all this time while conferring with us. The said officers also denied one of his lawyers from conferring with him directly over the phone. Upon being reminded that they are blatantly trampling on the rights of our client, all these officers could say is that they are acting under orders from "higher authorities."

We had thought that the bungled and outrageous handling of the arrest and detention of another client of ours, Mr. Vicente P. Ladlad, would have provided an opportunity for your Department and the services under your command to rectify and prevent the repetition and continuance of similar odious illegal practices.

We need not remind your good office that to tolerate and fail to undertake appropriate action or to encourage, wittingly or unwittingly, the commission of the said acts would certainly make your good office vulnerable to liability and responsibility under the constitution, laws and jurisprudence as well as the applicable international covenants on the matter which every civilized nation on earth upholds.

Specifically, we submit the following concrete demands on behalf of our client: