Camp General Rafael T. Crame () is the national
headquarters
Headquarters (commonly referred to as HQ) denotes the location where most, if not all, of the important functions of an organization are coordinated. In the United States, the corporate headquarters represents the entity at the center or the to ...
of the
Philippine National Police
The Philippine National Police ( fil, Pambansang Pulisya ng Pilipinas, acronymed as PNP) is the armed national police force in the Philippines. Its national headquarters is located at Camp Crame in Bagong Lipunan ng Crame, Quezon City. Current ...
(PNP) located along
Epifanio de los Santos Avenue
Epifanio de los Santos Avenue, commonly referred to by its acronym EDSA, is a limited-access circumferential highway around Manila, the capital city of the Philippines. It passes through 6 of Metro Manila's 17 local government units or cities, ...
(EDSA) in
Quezon City
Quezon City (, ; fil, Lungsod Quezon ), also known as the City of Quezon and Q.C. (read in Filipino as Kyusi), is the List of cities in the Philippines, most populous city in the Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a populatio ...
. It is situated across EDSA from
Camp Aguinaldo
Camp General Emilio Aguinaldo (CGEA), also known as Camp Aguinaldo, is the site of the general headquarters (GHQ) of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) located in eastern Metro Manila, the Philippines.
It is located in Quezon City alon ...
, the national headquarters of the
Armed Forces of the Philippines
The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) ( fil, Sandatahang Lakas ng Pilipinas) are the military forces of the Philippines. It consists of three main service branches; the Army, the Air Force, and the Navy (including the Marine Corps). The P ...
(AFP). Prior to the establishment of the civilian PNP, Camp Crame was the national headquarters of the
Philippine Constabulary
The Philippine Constabulary (PC; tl, Hukbóng Pamayapà ng Pilipinas, ''HPP''; es, Policía de Filipinas, ''PF'') was a gendarmerie-type police force of the Philippines from 1901 to 1991, and the predecessor to the Philippine National Po ...
, a
gendarmerie
Wrong info! -->
A gendarmerie () is a military force with law enforcement duties among the civilian population. The term ''gendarme'' () is derived from the medieval French expression ', which translates to " men-at-arms" (literally, ...
-type Military police force which was the PNP's predecessor.
Camp Crame was named after the first Filipino Chief of the
Philippine Constabulary
The Philippine Constabulary (PC; tl, Hukbóng Pamayapà ng Pilipinas, ''HPP''; es, Policía de Filipinas, ''PF'') was a gendarmerie-type police force of the Philippines from 1901 to 1991, and the predecessor to the Philippine National Po ...
, Brigadier General
Rafael Cramé
Rafael Crame y Pérez de Tagle (October 2, 1863 - January 1, 1927) was a Filipino Constabulary officer who served as Chief of the former Philippine Constabulary from 1917 until his death in 1927.
Early life and education
Rafael Crame was born i ...
.
History
Establishment
In 1935, the Philippine Constabulary struck a deal with the City Government of
Manila
Manila ( , ; fil, Maynila, ), officially the City of Manila ( fil, Lungsod ng Maynila, ), is the capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is highly urbanized and, as of 2019, was the world's most densely populate ...
to exchange its Gagalangin barracks compound in Tondo (now the site of
Florentino Torres High School) for a large tract of land in the New Manila Heights (now part of Quezon City). Part of this tract became Camp Crame, Camp Murphy (now
Camp Aguinaldo
Camp General Emilio Aguinaldo (CGEA), also known as Camp Aguinaldo, is the site of the general headquarters (GHQ) of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) located in eastern Metro Manila, the Philippines.
It is located in Quezon City alon ...
), and Zablan Field, site the Philippine Constabulary Air Corps (PCAC, now Barangay White Plains in Quezon City)
.
Camp Crame was named after Brigadier General
Rafael Crame, a grandson of former
Spanish colonial era Governor-General Don Joaquín Rafael de Crame, who had been appointed the first Filipino Chief of the Philippine Constabulary in December 1917.
Pre-independence years
The Philippine Constabulary was reorganized numerous times during the Philippines' commonwealth era, being dissolved and reconstituted as the nucleus of the Philippine Army at one point, and then reestablished as a police unit under the Army when the Commonwealth's new state police proved too difficult to manage and had to be dissolved.
Camp Crame was where the PC's General Strike Force was organized under Brig. Gen. Guillermo Francisco in 1939.
Philippine Constabulary Headquarters
After World War II, Camp Crame was used as the headquarters of the Philippine Constabulary, which service command was then considered part of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).
During the Marcos regime
As the headquarters of the Philippine Constabulary, Camp Crame became the site of five of the Marcos regime's most infamous detention facilities for political prisoners: the Men's Detention Center; the Women's Detention Center, the PC (Philippine Constabulary) Stockade; the MetroCom (Metropolitan Command) Detention Area; and the CIS (Criminal Investigation Service) Detenton Area.
In the hours just before Martial Law was officially announced on the evening of September 23, 1972, the Camp Crame Gymnasium became the site where the first hundred or so political prisoners - those caught from a list of about 400 journalists, educators, politicians, and others on a list of “National List of Target Personalities” who were labeled "subversives" because they had openly criticized Ferdinand Marcos - were brought before they were moved to other facilities such as Fort Magsaysay in Laur, Nueva Ecija or the various detention centers in Fort Bonifacio. The prisoners brought to Camp Crame included former President Sergio Osmeña's son
Sergio Osmeña III
Sergio may refer to:
* Sergio (given name), for people with the given name Sergio
* Sergio (carbonado), the largest rough diamond ever found
* ''Sergio'' (album), a 1994 album by Sergio Blass
* ''Sergio'' (2009 film), a documentary film
* ''Se ...
, Senators
Soc Rodrigo
Francisco "Soc" Aldana Rodrigo (January 29, 1914 – January 4, 1998) was a Filipino playwright, lawyer, broadcaster, and a Senator of the Philippines from 1955 to 1967.
In honor of in the struggle against the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos, hi ...
and
Ramon Mitra
Ramon Villarosa Mitra Jr. (February 4, 1928 – March 20, 2000) was a Filipino statesman, diplomat, and pro-democracy activist. He served as Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Philippines from 1987 to 1992. Prior to that, he was ...
, businessman
Eugenio Lopez Jr.
Eugenio "Geny" Moreno Lopez Jr. (November 4, 1928 – June 28, 1999) was the chairman emeritus of ABS-CBN Corporation from 1997 to 1999. He was known within the Lopez Group of Companies as "''Kapitán''" ( Filipino for "Captain"). His great-gra ...
, teacher
Etta Rosales
Loretta Ann P. "Etta" Rosales (born August 17, 1939) is a Filipina activist, teacher and politician who has served three terms as the party-list representative of the Akbayan Citizens' Action Party to the Philippines' House of Representatives f ...
, lawyer
Haydee Yorac
Haydee Bofill Yorac (; March 4, 1941 — September 12, 2005) was a Filipina public servant, law professor and politician.
Early life
Yorac was born on March 4, 1941, in the municipality of Saravia (now E. B. Magalona), Negros Occidental. She e ...
,
and a plethora of writers and broadcasters including Amando Doronila of the ''Daily Mirror'', Luis Mauricio of the ''Philippine Graphic'',
Teodoro Locsin Sr.
Teodoro "Teddy Boy" Montelibano Locsin (December 24, 1914 – January 22, 2000) was a journalist, publisher of The Philippines Free Press Magazine and father of current Secretary of Foreign Affairs Teodoro Locsin Jr.
Early life
Teodoro Mont ...
of the ''
Philippines Free Press
The ''Philippines Free Press'' is a weekly English language news magazine which was founded in 1908, which makes it the Philippines' oldest weekly English language periodical currently still in print. It is known for being one of the few publicati ...
'', Rolando Fadul of ''Taliba'', Robert Ordoñez of the ''Philippine Herald'', Rosalinda Galang of the ''Manila Times''; Ernesto Granada of the ''
Manila Chronicle'',
Maximo Soliven
Maximo Villaflor Soliven (September 4, 1929 – November 24, 2006) was a Filipino journalist and newspaper publisher. In a career spanning six decades, he founded the '' Philippine Star'' and served as its publisher until his death.
Backgr ...
of the ''Manila Times'', and
Luis Beltran
Luis "Ka Louie" Diaz Beltran (April 4, 1936 – September 6, 1994) was a Philippine broadcast journalist and newspaper columnist. In 2018, Beltran was identified by the Human Rights Victims' Claims Board as a Motu Proprio human rights vio ...
and Ruben Cusipag of the ''Evening News''. These early detainees even included eleven opposition delegates from the 1971 Constitutional Convention, including
Heherson Alvarez, Alejandro Lichuaco, Voltaire Garcia,
Teofisto Guingona Jr.
Teofisto "Tito" Tayko Guingona Jr. (born July 4, 1928) is a Filipino politician and diplomat who served as the 11th vice president of the Philippines from 2001 to 2004, during the first term of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. Born in San ...
, Philippines Free Press associate editor
Napoleon Rama, and broadcaster
Jose Mari Velez
Jose is the English transliteration of the Hebrew and Aramaic name ''Yose'', which is etymologically linked to ''Yosef'' or Joseph. The name was popular during the Mishnaic and Talmudic periods.
*Jose ben Abin
*Jose ben Akabya
*Jose the Galilean ...
.
The Gymnasium facilities were later used as a permanent detention facility, known as the Men's Detention Center.
The PC Stockade is noted as the place where the first death of a student while under government detention took place:
Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila
The Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila (from 'University of the City of Manila', abbreviated as PLM) is a city-government-funded local university situated inside the historic walled area of Intramuros, Manila, Philippines. It was established on ...
Communication Arts student
Liliosa Hilao
Aurelius and Natalie (died 852) were Christian martyrs who were put to death during the reign of Abd ar-Rahman II, Emir of Córdoba, and are counted among the Martyrs of Córdoba.
Aurelius was the son of a Muslim father and a Christian mother. ...
, who had been
brutally tortured before she died.
Others who were detained in Camp Crame at different times during the Marcos dictatorship were writers Luis R. Mauricio and
Ninotchka Rosca
Ninotchka Rosca (born December 17, 1946, in the Philippines) is a Filipina feminist, author, journalist, and human rights activist. best known for her 1988 novel '' State of War'' and for her activism, especially during the Martial Law dictatorsh ...
, Obet Verzola, Dolores Stephens Feria,
Boni Ilagan, and
Pete Lacaba, among others.
Numerous political prisoners were documented to have been
tortured
Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons such as punishment, extracting a confession, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. Some definitions are restricted to acts carr ...
during their detention in Camp Crame, evidence of which was gathered by volunteers by the Roman Catholic Church-established
Task Force Detainees of the Philippines
The Task Force Detainees of the Philippines (TFDP) is a non-profit, national human rights organization based in Manila, Philippines. It documents human rights violations, assists victims and their families, organizes missions, conducts human righ ...
and then reported to international human rights agencies such as
Amnesty International
Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...
.
Camp Crame was also the site of the Command for the Administration of Detainees (CAD), headed by PC Chief
Fidel V. Ramos
Fidel Valdez Ramos (, ; March 18, 1928 – July 31, 2022), popularly known as FVR and Eddie Ramos, was a Filipino general and politician who served as the 12th president of the Philippines from 1992 to 1998. He was the only career military ...
, which was the agency in charge of giving orders for the arrest and detention of the Marcos regime's political prisoners.
Role in the People Power revolution
Camp Crame later became one of the rallying points of people during the
People Power revolution
The People Power Revolution, also known as the EDSA Revolution or the February Revolution, was a series of popular Demonstration (people), demonstrations in the Philippines, mostly in Metro Manila, from February 22 to 25, 1986. There was a ...
of 1986
In February 1986, reports of election fraud during the
1986 Philippine presidential election
The 1986 Philippine presidential and vice presidential elections were held on February 7, 1986. Popularly known as the 1986 snap election, it is among the landmark events that led up to the People Power Revolution, the downfall of the presidenc ...
caused unrest among Filipinos and saw the organization of various protest activities, including the massive February 16, 1986 Tagumpay Ng Bayan rally at Rizal Park in manila, and a systematic boycott of products and companies associated with Marcos and his cronies. Hoping to take advantage of the disarray, the
Reform the Armed Forces Movement
The Reform the Armed Forces Movement, also referred to by the acronym RAM, was a cabal of officers of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) known for several attempts to seize power in the Philippines during the 1980s and 1990s. In 1986, som ...
(RAM) under then-Defense Secretary
Juan Ponce Enrile attempted to stage a coup, and took over
Camp Aguinaldo
Camp General Emilio Aguinaldo (CGEA), also known as Camp Aguinaldo, is the site of the general headquarters (GHQ) of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) located in eastern Metro Manila, the Philippines.
It is located in Quezon City alon ...
.
After he learned that Marcos' forces had uncovered the coup plot, Enrile invited PC Chief
Fidel Ramos
Fidel Valdez Ramos (, ; March 18, 1928 – July 31, 2022), popularly known as FVR and Eddie Ramos, was a Filipino general and politician who served as the 12th president of the Philippines from 1992 to 1998. He was the only career military ...
to join their cause and withdraw support from Marcos. Ramos agreed, and the two held a press conference to that effect in Camp Aguinaldo, after Ramos returned to Camp Crame, and Enrile Stayed in Camp Aguinaldo.
When Jaime Cardinal Sin learned about Enrile and Ramos' predicament, he went on air through
Radyo Veritas and appealed to Filipinos near Camps Aguinaldo and Crame to go to the stretch of Efipanio de Los Santos Avenue in between the two camps, forming a human shield to prevent Marcos' forces from coming down hard on the coup plotters.
Marcos ordered the Philippine Air Force’s 15th Strike Wing, commanded by Colomnel Antonio Sotelo, to neutralize the helicopters in Camp Crame. Instead of launching an airstrike, Sotelo and his men defected, bringing their helicopters and planes over to join Ramos' forces in Camp Crame.
Eventually Enrile and Ramos decided to consolidate their forces in Camp Aguinaldo, with the crowd gathered at EDSA creating a protective wall for Enrile's forces to leave Camp Aguinaldo and cross EDSA to get to join Ramos' forces in Camp Crame.
This began a series of events which saw Marcos thrown out of the country, Corazon Aquino installed as president of a Revolutinary Government, the coup plotters able to walk out of Camp Crame unscathed, and Marcos forced into exile in Hawaii.
Philippine National Police Headquarters
Today, the camp serves as the headquarters of the Philippine National Police, the force established in 1991 as an entity separate from the AFP; despite the separation, however, the titles to the land on which Camp Crame stands were turned over to the PNP by the AFP only in July 2008.
Custodial Center
Camp Crame host the PNP Custodial Center which serves as a detainment facility for high profile suspects. Several high-profile personalities have been detained at Camp Crame in recent years, among them deposed President
Joseph Ejercito Estrada. The ongoing trial for the
Maguindanao Massacre
The Maguindanao massacre, also known as the Ampatuan massacre, named after the town where mass graves of victims were found, occurred on the morning of November 23, 2009, in the town of Ampatuan in then-undivided Maguindanao (which is now Magu ...
is also held in a courtroom inside the camp, where primary suspect
Datu Unsay mayor
Andal Ampatuan Jr. is being detained. Australian Muslim preacher
Musa Cerantonio was held here at one point during his deportation from the Philippines. As of March 2017, Senator
Leila de Lima, former chair of the Philippine Commission on Human Rights, was being held here, charged with allegedly taking bribes from drug dealers.
[Felipe Villamor, "Imprisoned and Fearful, Duterte Critic Speaks Out", ''New York Times'', March 25, 2017, p. A8.]
Renovations
The camp is currently undergoing renovation, starting with the renovation of the PNP Multipurpose Hall and the camp's swimming pool. There are also plans for the construction of a multi-storey building along the
EDSA
Epifanio de los Santos Avenue, commonly referred to by its acronym EDSA, is a limited-access circumferential highway around Manila, the capital city of the Philippines. It passes through 6 of Metro Manila's 17 local government units or cities, ...
side of the camp to house the administrative offices of the PNP, as well as commercial establishments for the general public.
Recognition
In April 2011, the post was recognized by the
National Historical Commission
The National Historical Commission of the Philippines ( fil, Pambansang Komisyong Pangkasaysayan ng Pilipinas, abbreviated NHCP) is a government agency of the Philippines. Its mission is "the promotion of Philippine history and cultural herita ...
; a marker was placed on the facility with the presence of former President
Fidel Ramos
Fidel Valdez Ramos (, ; March 18, 1928 – July 31, 2022), popularly known as FVR and Eddie Ramos, was a Filipino general and politician who served as the 12th president of the Philippines from 1992 to 1998. He was the only career military ...
.
References
{{Coord, 14, 36, 32.86, N, 121, 3, 11.57, E, display=title
Law enforcement in the Philippines
Buildings and structures in Quezon City