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ALL that publicity about a people’s tribunal in The
Hague condemning the Arroyo administration as being responsible for
extrajudicial killings in the Philippines was a lot of noise.
A group that calls itself the
Permanent People’s Court had met in The Hague to hear violations
of human rights in the Philippines. Much of the media picked up its
conclusions and gave them generous newspaper space and airtime.
“A kangaroo court,” was how
the Dutch Ambassador to the Philippines Robert Vornis called the
proceedings.
“We are concerned about the
human rights in the Philippines and we share that concern with the
authorities and the government. At the same time, regarding the
People’s Tribunal, it would seem to me the verdict was a foregone
conclusion,” the ambassador said.
“And therefore, it is a
tribunal that is to me more of a political exercise than a judicial
exercise. In that respect, perhaps we should think of it more as a
kangaroo tribunal than anything else,” he continued.
Unfortunately a senator of this
republic, Jamby Madrigal, has decided to exalt the PPC, with its
mainly left-of-center participants, as something sacrosanct, a fount
of wisdom and justice, instead of the kangaroo court that it is.
The American Heritage Dictionary
defines a kangaroo tribunal or court as “a mock court set up in
violation of established legal procedure” or “a court
characterized by dishonesty or incompetence.”
Ambassador Alistair MacDonald,
chairman of the European Commission in Manila, would not comment on
the verdict because the tribunal was a “nonofficial body . . .
nongovernment.”
The ambassador spoke at a press
briefing called to mark the 50th anniversary of the union, an
organization of 27 countries. The European Commission serves as its
executive arm.
The Hague-based tribunal
functions very much like the private-sector “people’s courts”
convened periodically by Filipino militant groups claiming to try
excesses by the government.
Malacañang and the Armed Forces
have said that the people’s tribunal is biased and self-serving.
That the Hague’s PPC is a
kangaroo court, however, does not absolve the military of charges
that some of its officers and enlisted men have participated in
numerous extrajudicial killings that victimized mostly militant
labor, peasant and student leaders. Activist groups that keep count
said more than 80 summary killings have taken place since 2001.
The AFP and the Department of
Justice have complained that attention has not been paid to purges
committed by the New People’s Army against party renegades and of
having staged its kangaroo courts in the name of people’s justice.
The government has acknowledged
the killings and claims that 60 cases have been brought to the
courts, with four convictions.
President Arroyo has also invited
the United Nations and the European Union to help solve the killings
or to recommend measures to stop a continuing wave of violence.
The military has attracted blame
for the killings owing to a notorious general’s policy of
repression against militant civilians and the AFP’s political
campaign against left-of-center party-list organizations.
In its latest misstep, the AFP
fielded armed troops in the poorer neighborhoods of Metro Manila to
combat what it calls urban terrorism.
The generals have to be told that
the best weapon against metropolitan insurgency is not warm bodies
on the streets but sound intelligence, supported by undercover
specialists, sting operations and sophisticated surveillance.
A humane prison
A SMALL revolution in prison
reform has taken place in Parañaque with the construction of a
spacious, modern prison on a 3,000-square meter property on Coastal
Road, La Huerta.
The four-story building could
accommodate a thousand inmates. The current city jail, which houses
743 residents, was originally built for only 100 detainees.
Observers said the Parañaque
facility meets the requirements of a modern prison, which include
clean toilets and baths, medical and dental clinics, a kitchen, a
visitors’ area and a multipurpose hall.
“The new jail was built to
replace the congested prison and provide inmates modern facilities
and more humane living conditions,” Parañaque Mayor Florencio
Bernabe Jr. said.
The facility strengthens Parañaque’s
claim to being a progressive city. All jails in Metro Manila are
notorious for overcrowding, dirt, unclean water and fetid air.
All over the country, as a matter
of fact, most city and municipal jails function as warehouses for
offenders who do not receive fair treatment from local governments.
As in the national prisons and the provincial jails, municipal jails
are a breeding place for disease, crime and despair.
Bernabe was wise to say that a
humane jail is important since penal rehabilitation is a pillar of
the criminal-justice system. It is right that offenders be
“punished” for their crime but, at the same time, they should
have access to opportunities that rehabilitate their ways and that
prepare them for a productive reentry to the mainstream.
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