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By Nora O. Gamolo, Senior Desk Editor
Editor’s note: In part 1, the author began
detailing how the Arroyo administration—which must be a world
leader in human-rights observance, promotion and protection because
the Philippines is a member of the UN Human Rights Council—has to
do balancing acts since it is being accused of human-rights abuses
on many fronts.
Last of two parts
Alleged violations of international humanitarian
law, such as fake surrenders, involuntary servitude, and use of
civilians as military guides, totalled 14 incidents, involving 36
persons.
By end-October 2007, the human rights community
counted a total of 887 extrajudicial killings, with 68 such
incidents registered for this year, in contrast to 203 in 2006. The
drop in the number of vigilante killings is perceptible, even human
rights activists acknowledged.
The Philippine government, however, is
criticized for continuing with its military campaigns that bring up
the grisly statistics to a higher level. Last year closed with
intense military campaigns in Surigao del Sur and Quezon, among
other places.
Writ of amparo
With new guidelines issued by the Supreme Court,
the writ of amparo has been invoked by aggrieved parties. There has
been a rich harvest of amparo writs and the police and military have
released detained persons.
The latest writs of amparo issued by the Court
of Appeals have included the Armed Forces chief of staff and the
Philippine National Police (PNP) chief as respondents.
Bloody start for 2008
In the first six weeks of 2008, human rights
defenders are continuing to count the number of dead
activists—including Tildo Rebamonte, a carpenter from Masbate, and
former political prisoner Ronald Sandijas of Bohol, both killed in
January.
A peace consultant of the National Democratic
Front (NDF), Iglicerio Pernia, was abducted in Bulacan last week,
and was traced to the headquarters of the Intelligence Service of
the Armed Forces in the Philippines.
Some 13 NDF consultants, staff and their
families reportedly have been abducted and remain missing. They are
supposed to be protected by an official agreement signed with the
government that guarantees their security and immunity from arrest
and other forms of harassment.
Rome Statute
A group of Filipino activist lawyers, the
National Union of People’s Lawyers, also takes the Arroyo
government to task for its continued refusal to submit to the Senate
for its ratification of the Rome Statute of the International
Criminal Court.
One of the most important treaties after the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Rome Statute gives the
International Criminal Court a mandate to arrest and imprison human
rights violators who are citizens of countries that are “unwilling
or unable” to prosecute them.
If the Philippines ratifies it, it could be put
to test by having alleged human rights violators in the Philippines
tried in the international court. Philippine membership in the
International Criminal Court is another legal mechanism against
impunity as it can give relief to victims who cannot find justice
against their abusers in their own countries.
The press in 2008
During the UN Human Rights Council review, the
Philippine government is also expected to answer queries on issues
that bear on the press-freedom aspects of human rights, such as the
controversial state-supported proposals for the revival of the
anti-subversion law, the adoption of a national ID system, and the
stringent proposals against media coverage of emergencies.
In one case of what some are calling media
harassment, the national police is accusing an unidentified woman
journalist of helping Marine Capt. Nicanor Faeldon escape after the
November 29, 2007 standoff between military rebels and the police at
the Manila Peninsula Hotel in Makati City. Faeldon remains a
fugitive to this day.
One of those suspected of aiding Faeldon’s
escape is Dana Batnag of Jiji Press, a Japanese news wire service
operating in the Philippines. She is the third among journalists
accused by innuendo of aiding Faeldon, the others being Ces Oreńa-Drilon
of ABS-CBN and Malaya newspaper columnist Ellen Tordesillas.
The police have not proceeded to take action
against any of them.
Journalists have charged the authorities of
engaging in a “systematic witch-hunting campaign to intimidate
media and disallow them to perform their task to bring relevant
information to the public.” They have condemned the charges
against them as “devoid of merit.”
Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez agreed with
critics that a video being used against Batnag cannot be the basis
for her prosecution.
“These PNP acts reveal an insidious campaign
to intimidate media which is either aimed to caution them in
performing their tasks or to totally silence them,” the
journalists said.
Decriminalizing libel
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has expressed
preference that libel be punished only with a fine, rather than with
imprisonment for those convicted of it.
A statement by the National Union of Journalists
of the Philippines said Chief Justice Reynato Puno’s bold move
“gives us hope to continue calling on Congress to act on our
demand to decriminalize libel.”
The Chief Justice’s message to judges,
however, does not “remove libel from criminal statutes or prevent
those who want to silence the media from filing cases against
journalists.”
The journalists union vowed to continue its
campaign against criminal libel and urged lawmakers “not to pass
up this chance to strengthen press freedom and democracy.”
The energies of all human rights stakeholders,
government and non-government alike, are now directed at how the
Philippines will fare in the mandatory “universal periodic
review” of its human rights record and compliance in April. The
review in Geneva will be a public affair.
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