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Last week, Commission on Human Rights (CHR) Chair Leila de Lima
chewed out the Philippine NationalPolice for being the “No. 1
violator of human rights” in the country. She voiced her concern
over human rights violations “specific to law enforcement agents,
such as illegal arrests, arbitrary detention, excessive use of
force, extra-judicial killings and even the indiscriminate parading
of suspects to the media.”
De Lima warned that, as CHR chief, she would
look into cases of human rights violations and file appropriate
charges against the perpetrators.
PNP Director General Avelino Razon welcomed de
Lima’s remarks and pledged to improve his organization’s human
rights record in keeping with the government’s commitment to abide
by the United Nations’ human rights standards for law-enforcement
agencies.
But National Capital Region Police Office
Director Geary Barias’ reaction tends to exculpate the PNP from
the charge of being a top human rights violator. The complaints
against the police, he said, “are not human rights violations”
but were meant only “to harass law enforcers.”
The PNP and the Armed Forces of the Philippines
have been condemned by local and international human rights groups
for their human rights abuses
CHR records show that 50 extra-judicial killings
had been committed in the Visayas since 2005. These were apart from
40 cases of illegal arrests, four cases of disappearances and three
cases of torture.
The PNP was accused of involvement in the
“rubout” in Tanauan, Batangas, of three men suspected of robbing
the RCBC bank in Laguna last May. The police were also believed
involved in the killing of three suspected car thieves in Ortigas
more than two years ago.
Notwithstanding their judicial clearance, it is
our view that the police officers involved in the arrest and
handcuffing of journalists covering the siege at the Peninsula Hotel
(where wanted Sen. Antonio Trillanes and his followers had taken
refuge and staged a mutinous propaganda action) amounted to gross
human rights abuse.
During the eighth session of the UN Human Rights
Council last month, the Philippine government pledged to minimize
the incidence of extra-judicial executions and enforced
disappearances and to bring the perpetrators to justice.
But Amnesty International believes that
“impunity” in the perpetration of human rights violations in the
Philippines has been “pervasive.” The US-based Committee to
Protect Journalists also believes so.
The government has much to do to improve its
human rights image. It has to streamline its witness protection
program, prosecute the people behind the political killings and the
murder of journalists, and ensure their conviction through a fair
and credible judicial process.
Legislation invoking command responsibility for
enforced disappearances, torture and other human rights violations
should be passed. To make the CHR an effective human rights
watchdog, a law should also be passed to give it prosecutorial
powers.
DFA at 110
The creation of the Department of Foreign
Affairs on June 23, 1898, is linked to the birth of the Philippine
Republic 11 days earlier when General Emilio Aguinaldo proclaimed
the independence of the Philippines in Kawit, Cavite.
In the 11 decades since its creation, the DFA,
as the implementing arm of the country’s foreign policy, has
performed its tasks in the finest tradition set by Apolinario Mabini,
its first secretary, and other eminent figures who had served in the
department.
The DFA anchors our foreign policy on three
pillars: the promotion of national interest, the attainment of
economic development and the protection of the welfare of eight
million overseas Filipino workers (OFWs)
The migration of about one-tenth of our
population has irrevocably altered the character of our foreign
policy. President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, for this reason, has
given top priority in the conduct of our foreign policy to the
protection of our OFWs.
It is only natural for the government to extend
assistance to our overseas workers in recognition of their crucial
role in boosting the country’s social and economic development
through their remittances amounting to billions of dollars.
In other areas, the Philippines has taken the
lead in promoting human rights (despite its own spotty record at
home). It has helped pass the General Assembly resolution calling
for a moratorium on the death penalty. In May last year, it was
reelected to the United Nations’ Human Rights Council.
Our country has also been an active promoter of
world peace—and one of the main contributors to UN peacekeeping
missions.
The DFA has led efforts to transform the South
China Sea from a region of conflict into one of cooperation in the
exploration of hydrocarbons in some portions of the disputed area.
A cornerstone of the Philippine foreign policy
lies in strengthening relations with our Southeast Asian neighbors.
As chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) last
year, the Philippines advanced the process of forging wider
cooperation between and among the 10 member countries.
With the President as the architect of foreign
policy and with Secretary Alberto G. Romulo as head of DFA, we look
to new foreign policy directions in keeping with the epochal changes
in the power relationships in the region and the world.
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