A/HRC/13/42* page 99 Disappearances noted in February 2009 that, in the Central Luzon region of the Philippines, since 2001, more than 70 people had allegedly been victims of enforced disappearance, a number of those previously disappeared had surfaced after being detained and tortured by military officers, and no perpetrators had been punished.382 In its response to a questionnaire for the present study, the Government of the Philippines stated that facilities and practices of secret detention contravene the Constitution, which expressly prohibits secret, solitary and incommunicado detention and torture, and are not used. Specific laws provide penalties for those who violate requirements in relation to the arrest, interrogation and detention of those suspected of terrorism. 195. The experts interviewed one victim of secret detention, Raymond Manalo,383 suspected of supporting the insurgent New People’s Army (NPA), whose case sheds light on the broader situation. On 14 February 2006, Raymond and his brother Reynaldo were abducted from their farms in San Ildefonso, Bulacan, by AFP soldiers and men belonging to a militia established by the AFP to support its counter-terrorism efforts. The brothers were suspected of being supporters of the NPA. They were kept in unacknowledged detention in military facilities and safe houses run by the military for 18 months until they managed to escape from detention on 13 August 2007. A decision of the Supreme Court of the Philippines of 8 October 2008 in proceedings for the writ of amparo brought by Raymond Manalo describes what happened to him according to his own testimony, which the Supreme Court found highly credible in spite of denials by the AFP. Other persons suspected of being supporters of left-wing groups, including two female university students, were secretly detained with them.384 The detainees were tortured during interrogation to extort confessions regarding their links to the NPA. The female detainees were raped by soldiers. 196. Throughout his detention, Raymond Manalo was not brought before any judicial authority and had no contact with a lawyer. His family only learned that he was still alive when he was brought before them on one occasion in an attempt to persuade his parents to drop a habeas corpus petition that they had filed on behalf of Raymond and his brother. In the habeas corpus proceedings, the AFP staunchly denied that they were holding the Manalo brothers. Other persons held together with the Manalo brothers remain disappeared.385 Raymond Manalo testified before the Supreme Court that he saw the killing and burning of one of his 382 A/HRC/10/9, para. 323. 383 Interview with Raymond Manalo (annex II, case 17). 384 Supreme Court of the Republic of the Philippines in The Secretary of National Defense and the Chief of Staff, Armed Forces of the Philippines v. Raymond Manalo and Reynaldo Manalo, G.R. No. 180906, decision of 7 October 2008. See also the report entitled “Terrorism and human rights in the Philippines: fighting terror or terrorizing?”, available from www.fidh.org/IMG/pdf/ph493a.pdf, p. 39. 385 “Terrorism and human rights in the Philippines: fighting terror or terrorizing?”, p. 39.