Physical injuries or torture: CHR explains the difference

What is the difference between physical injuries and torture? How do people learn to draw the line between the two?

The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) explained in Twitter that physical injuries, as defined by Article 263 of the Revised Penal Code, is when any person wounds, beats, or assaults another person.

Torture, on the other hand, as defined by R.A. 9745, the Anti-Torture Act of 2009, refers to "an act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or her a third person information or confession."

Torture is also the act of punishing a person for an act he or she or a third person has committed or is suspecting of having committed.

"Kapag ang isang tao ay nanakit, nambugbog o nagdulot ng kahit na anong pisikal na pag-atake sa kapwa pribadong indibidwal, tinatawag ang krimen bilang physical injuries, (When a person harms, beats, or causes any physical attack on a fellow private individual, the crime is called physical injuries)," the CHR tweeted.

However, when a person becomes a victim of physical or mental harm in order to confess or provide information, the crime becomes torture.

The CHR further tweeted that when a person is "pilitin ito na gumawa ng mga bagay na nakakapinsala sa pagkatao nito at ginawa sa kaalaman ng awtoridad o sinumang bahagi ng estado, ito ay tinatawag na torture (forced to do things which are harmful to their being and made with the knowledge of the authorities or any part of the state, it is called torture)."

The CHR has long raised awareness on the prohibition of all forms of torture.

The Anti-Torture Law was passed in November, 2009, which prohibits and criminalizes torture and other forms of ill-treatment against persons deprived of liberty (PDLs).