at all times be assisted by counsel.
b) Any public officer or employee, or anyone acting under
his order or in his place, who arrests, detains or investigates
any person for the commission of an offense shall inform the
latter, in a language known to and understood by him, of his
rights to remain silent and to have competent and independent
counsel, preferably of his own choice, who shall at all times be
allowed to confer privately with the person arrested, detained or
under custodial investigation. If such person cannot afford the
services of his own counsel, he must be provided with a competent
and independent counsel by the investigating officer.
c) The custodial investigation report shall be reduced to
writing by the investigating officer, provided that before such
report is signed, or thumbmarked if the person arrested or
detained does not know how to read and write, it shall be read and
adequately explained to him by his counsel or by the assisting
counsel provided by the investigating officer in the language or
dialect known to such arrested or detained person, otherwise, such
investigation report shall be null and void and of no effect
whatsoever.
d) Any extrajudicial confession made by a person arrested,
detained or under custodial investigation shall be in writing and
signed by such person in the presence of his counsel or in the
latter's absence, upon a valid waiver, and in the presence of any
of the parents, elder brothers and sisters, his spouse, the
municipal mayor, the municipal judge, district school supervisor,
or priest or minister of the gospel as chosen by him; otherwise,
such extrajudicial confession shall be inadmissible as evidence in
any proceeding.
e) Any waiver by a person arrested or detained under the
provisions of Article 125 of the Revised Penal Code, or under
custodial investigation, shall be in writing and signed by such
person in the presence of his counsel; otherwise such waiver shall
be null and void and of no effect.
f) Any person arrested or detained or under custodial
investigation shall be allowed visits by or conferences with any
member of his immediate family, or any medical doctor of priest or
religious minister chosen by him or by any memberof his immediate
family or by his counsel, or by any national non-government
organization duly accredited by the Commission on Human Rights or
by any international non-governmental organization duly accredited
by the Office of the President. The person's "immediate family"
shall include his or her spouse, fiance or fiancee, parent or
child, brother or sister, grandparent or grandchild, uncle or
aunt, nephew or neice, and guardian or ward.
As used in this Act, "custodial investigation" shall include
the practice of issuing an "invitation" to a person who is
investigated in connection with an offense he is suspected to have