Philippines holds 14 cops for chilli torture video

Philippine police said Thursday they have detained six more officers in a widening investigation into the maltreatment of recruits who were allegedly force-fed and rubbed with red-hot chillies. A total of 14 police officers are now in custody and their two superior officers are also being investigated, national police chief Raul Bacalzo said in a statement. "Actions like these do not have any place in the PNP (Philippine National Police) where respect for human rights and the rule of law is a command policy that every PNP member is duty bound to uphold," he said. Eight police officers were arrested on Monday after Commission on Human Rights chief Loretta Ann Rosales alerted the interior ministry to two videos she said showed a group of naked and blindfolded police recruits. "The trainers smeared the recruits' genitals, anus and underarms with extracts of red chilli pepper resulting in excruciating pain," she said in a letter to the ministry which was made available to AFP on Thursday. The videos, which were sent anonymously by mail to the commission, also showed the recruits being forced to chew and swallow chillies as well as drink water spiked with the pungent red fruit. Police said the detained officers were identified from the videos. The victims were on a special counter-insurgency course at the time the footage is thought to have been taken last year, and have since joined the police ranks, according to a force spokeswoman. Torture that does not cause death, or permanent or temporary disfigurement or disability is punishable by up to six months in jail according to a 2009 anti-torture law. The case is the second to surface against the armed services this week, after four soldiers were arrested for setting fire last month to a man they wrongly suspected of being an Islamist militant. The victim is in critical condition with severe burns, his family said. President Benigno Aquino, elected last year, has pledged to end widespread human rights abuses in the insurgency-wracked country where many activists and journalists have allegedly been killed or abducted by the security forces.