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By Angelo S. Samonte, Reporter
Left-leaning groups lobbying for the removal of
the Philippines from its membership in the United Nations Human
Rights Council cannot succeed because the world body is highly
independent, Malacañang said.
“They [militant organizations] can’t
influence the members [of the UN council] because it’s not easy to
convince them,” Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, told reporters
through a teleconference on Friday. He is in Geneva, Switzerland, to
present the situation on human rights in the Philippines.
“It would be hard for them to convince even
one or two countries,” Ermita said of the challenge facing the
left-leaning groups. These groups have accused the government of
failing to put an end to extrajudicial killings and other abuses.
Ermita denied lavishly spending for meetings
with other UN members. He said these meetings are usual and regular,
not extravagant, contrary to accusations of some sectors.
He is to present the current progress report for
the Philippine human rights situation on the heels of a visit by UN
special rapporteur Philip Alston and the implementation of the
recommendations of the Melo Commission last year.
Some of the highlights of the Ermita
presentation in Geneva include human-rights education in the
country, good governance, government advocacy of demands of the
people most vulnerable to abuses, and government’s commitment to
ensure human rights amid a campaign against poverty and insurgency.
Ermita said other government agencies, such as
the Social Welfare department and the National Economic and
Development Authority (NEDA), will also present the social and
economic conditions in the Philippines at present.
The development authority, he added, will
particularly discuss President Gloria Arroyo’s policies to fulfill
the UN’s Millennium Development Goals, to which the country is
committed meet. Those are eight goals for ending extreme poverty.
“NEDA will tell them how the government is
addressing the food and poverty problem in the country because we
believe that poverty is the root cause of human rights violations,
killings and disappearances. And therefore we must address
poverty,” he said.
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