Now, he is trying to kill them by depriving them of adequate air.

Dawn of Tuesday last week, Medal of Valor awardee Col. Ariel Que-rubin, complained of shortness of breath and chest pains. It was only after four hours, at about 7 a.m., that he was taken to the Camp Aguinaldo hospital, where the X-ray machine was out of order and no medicine available. Querubin had to send his security escort out to buy his medicine. He was later transferred to V. Luna Medical Hospital where he was confined in the Intensive Care Unit. He will be brought to the Philippine Heart Center today for angioplasty.

Querubin is confined at the high-security compound of the Intelligence Service of the AFP (ISAFP) in Camp Aguinaldo together with 25 other officers led by Maj. Gen. Renato Miranda. (Brig. Gen. Danny Lim is detained with Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV and the other Magdalo officers in Camp Crame while Capt. Dante Langkit is in the Intelligence Security Group compound in Fort Bonifacio.) They were brought there from Camp Capinpin in Tanay, Rizal last February 7 amid rumors of another military uprising against Arroyo.

Relatives of the officers have complained with the Commission on Human Rights about the conditions in the detention center. The primary problem, they said, is the center's ventilation system. This is their description of the place: "The cells have low ceiling. Twelve of the cells have no windows. The only openings are small holes in the upper parts of the cell."

"In this sweltering summer heat, it's hell," one wife said. The detention custodian does not allow installation of air conditioning. Electric fans are not enough to mitigate the heat, they said.

The officers and their children who visit them this summer suffer dehydration. They can't sleep. When they wake up, they are bathed in their sweat.

Army Maj. Leomar Jose Doctolero was brought to the hospital also last week for asthma and bronchitis. Capt. Erick Sales also required treatment when his blood pressure shot up.

When CHR personnel visited the place two weeks ago, the custodians made a hole in the concrete wall that separates the detention area and the MIG 17 compound where there are recreation facilities. Apparently they wanted to make it appear that the detained officers are allowed sports activities.

It's a lie. They are not. In fact, immediately after the CHR people left, they cemented again the wall.

The detention area is accessible through a narrow path about a hundred meters long. No vehicle can come in.

The CHR people wondered why the officers are in ISAFP, which is not a detention center. ISAFP is where the agents interrogate suspects or try to break persons they want to use against people they want to persecute.

In fact, more than the inhuman detention conditions, the question is why are these officers in prison? They have always remained true to their constitutional mandate as the "protector of the people and the State." They have fought valiantly in the field against those who threaten peace and democracy.

They did not malverse people's money. They did not participate in the cheating in the May 2004 elections unlike many of the officers Arroyo promoted, including their chief jailer, Esperon.

The body that investigated the February 2006 alleged plan to withdraw support from Gloria Arroyo recommended that the charge of mutiny be dropped for lack of legal and factual bases.

The recommended charge of "conduct unbecoming of an officer and gentleman" and other similar minor charges are deemed dropped after no arraignment took place within two years since the offense was supposed to have been committed.

Esperon has tried all legal distortions to break these honorable officers. He failed. He is now trying to deprive them of the most basic need of the human body: oxygen.

He may yet succeed with murder.