Every year, December 10 is the United Nations’ designated Human Rights Day.

After World War II, the Philippines earned considerable fame for being a principal proponent of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was proclaimed by the UN on December 10, 1948.

Today, one must agree with the generally held assessment of the recent Philippine human-rights record:

That since 2001, when President Arroyo took office, hundreds of suspected supporters of the communist movement, actual members of left-wing political parties, left-wing provincial officials, human rights activists (including clergy and laymen and women working for the Roman Catholic Church and the Protestant Christian denominations), and journalists have been killed or forcibly disappeared. But only six cases have been successfully prosecuted.

The military has been implicated in many of these crimes. Eleven persons have been convicted in these cases of extrajudicial killings. Not one of these men was an active military serviceman at the time of the killing. The killings surged after President Arroyo’s declaration in June 2006 of an “all-out war” against the communist New People’s Army insurgency.

The Arroyo administration has not sufficiently investigated numerous extrajudicial killings in which the military has been implicated. It has yet to take determined action against local government-backed “death squads” in Davao City and elsewhere. It has tolerated instead of correcting the suspicious delays in the investigation of these killings.

Culture of impunity

The Maguindanao Massacre clearly proves that the Arroyo administration has been a big failure in stamping out the culture of impunity. The Ampatuan clan and its private armies were allies and instruments of the
Arroyo administration, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP). They were political allies who delivered command votes for President Arroyo herself and her candidates.
They were tools of the AFP and the PNP in the campaign to control the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front and possibly the Abu Sayyaf Group.

The officials of the Arroyo administration moved against the Ampatuans only because witnesses saw, and relatives knew through text messages, that the Ampatuans, their lieutenants and warriors had abducted the victims and then demonically murdered at least 57 persons, including about 30 journalists.

But the AFP and PNP commands and their men always knew of the Ampatuans’ murderous and anti-human-rights activities. Why didn’t they stop and arrest the Ampatuans? Why were they allowed to grow and to carry on with impunity? Because they were political allies of the Arroyos and paramilitary operatives of the AFP and the PNP.

There are, according to a recent statement of the Commission on Human Rights, from 70 to maybe more than 100 Ampatuan-like private armies in Mindanao alone. Their feudal and warlord structure is basically the same as that of the Ampatuans’ in Maguindanao. Even the Ampatuans’ former ally and recent victim, the Mangudadatu clan, is said to have its own private army. And there are also warlords, with squads and companies of heavily armed and well-equipped goons, in Luzon and the Visayas.

Something good always comes out from sad and tragic events God in His wisdom and power permits to happen.

We hope and pray this monstrous and satanic deed of the Ampatuans—which has plunged our country into deep anxiety over the imposition of martial law in Maguindanao—will lead to the extermination of all the warlords and their private armies.

And may the turmoil surrounding the Maguindanao Massacre lead to the development of a keener resolve among us Filipinos—we the common people as well as our officials—to honor the dignity of our fellow human beings at all times.


Anti-Corruption Day

Yesterday, December 9, was also an important UN General Assembly-designated commemoration: International Anti-Corruption Day. The UN passed the resolution on October 31, 2003.

The UN expects from states that are parties to the “United Nations Convention Against Corruption” to establish and maintain legal and administrative mechanisms to prevent and arrest graft and corruption.

One can say that as far as the existence of these mechanisms is concerned, the Philippine Republic can be given a grade of “Excellent.”

But whether the anti-corruption laws and the mechanisms are really being employed by the Arroyo administration is another matter. In this the Philippines deserves the bad grades it gets from the World Bank, Transparency International, and other respected monitors.

Last year, the administration celebrated International Anti-Corruption Day together with the multi-sectoral Anti-Corruption Council. President Arroyo issued Presidential Memorandum Circular No. 167 on October 22, 2008, directing all Cabinet members and their attached agencies and heads of government-owned and controlled corporations to actively participate in and give full support to the celebration of the International Anti-Corruption Day and the Launching of the First United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC).

The local government executives and heads of government offices were required to recite the “Multi-Sectoral Anti-Corruption Council Prayer” at the Monday flag-raising ceremony prior to International Anti-Corruption Day.

This year, there seemed to have been no activity on December 9. Although in June the Ombudsman presided over the birth of the Anti-Corruption Council in Cebu.

Is this year’s non-celebration a sign that the administration and the multi-sectoral Anti-Corruption Council have given up on the goal of vanquishing corruption in our country?

Are they still praying the “Multi-Sectoral Anti-Corruption Council Prayer?”