The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) explicitly provides that all persons deprived of liberty shall be treated with humanity and with respect for the inherent dignity of the human person. As such, under the 1987 Constitution, the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) is mandated to exercise visitorial powers over jails, prisons, or detention facilities1 to monitor the human rights situation of PDLs. The same visitorial powers are also found in the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of Republic Act (RA) No. 9745, or the Anti-Torture Act of 2009, and RA No. 10353, or the Anti-Enforced or Involuntary Disappearance Act of 2012, as well as its IRR, which essentially states that the CHR, or any of its duly authorized representatives, can exercise such powers at any time, over jails, prisons, detention facilities, or any other place of detention (POD), in an unrestricted, independent, and unannounced manner. Number of Jail Visitations For 2020, the CHR conducted a total of 849 Jail Visitations. The visitations conducted were a combination of face-to-face visits, virtual visits (via Zoom, Facebook Messenger, Skype, etc.), mobile/landline phone conversations, and/or emailed responses from PODs. TABLE 12 Breakdown of Number of Jails Visitation (per Region) Regional Office Visitorial Division I II CAR III IV-A IV-B V VI VII VIII IX X XI XII CARAGA NCR Total 1 Number of Visits Conducted 3 180 57 34 115 55 33 81 26 30 51 40 39 37 28 20 20 849 PHIL. CONST. art. XIII, § 18 (4). CHR 2020 ANNUAL REPORT Page 37