Bulatlat

“The Philippine National Report is significant not for what it says but for what it does not say. It is a selective, one-sided, self-serving account of the Philippine government's so-called achievements and best practices in fulfilling its human rights obligations. It is a brazen attempt to hide the truth and evade accountability for the Arroyo regime's patent disregard for the people's civil, political, social, economic and cultural rights.”

BY EMILY VITAL
HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH
Bulatlat
Vol. VIII, No. 9, April 6-12, 2008

Families of victims and human rights advocates debunked the Arroyo government’s Philippine National Report (PNR) for the United Nation’s (UN) Universal Periodic Review (UPR).

The UN’s General Assembly, in its resolution 60/251, mandated the Human Rights Council (HRC) to ‘undertake a universal periodic review, based on objective and reliable information, of the fulfillment by each State of its human rights obligations and commitments in a manner which ensures universality of coverage and equal treatment with respect to all States.’ At its fifth session on 18 June 2007, the HRC adopted a resolution detailing the modalities regarding the UPR mechanism.

The 25-page PNR will be presented by Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita before the UN’s HRC in Geneva, Switzerland, April 11.

Meanwhile, Karapatan, Hustisya, Desaparecidos, National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP), Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan), IBON Foundation, Bayan Muna, IPHR-Monitor and  GMA Watch formed the UPR Watch. They will also send a delegation to Geneva.

In its critique, the UPR Watch said, “The PNR is significant not for what it says but for what it does not say. It is a selective, one-sided, self-serving account of the Philippine government's so-called achievements and best practices in fulfilling its human rights obligations. It is a brazen attempt to hide the truth and evade accountability for the Arroyo regime's patent disregard for the people's civil, political, social, economic and cultural rights.”

Rev. Fr. Rex Reyes, Jr., head of the Philippine UPR Watch delegation and general secretary of the National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP), “The PNR lays down a litany of Constitutional provisions, republic acts, presidential decrees, executive orders, administrative orders, plans, programs and structures related to the promotion and protection of human rights that in reality have failed to effectively address the issues of extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, torture, militarization, political persecution, economic penury, social dysfunction and cultural decadence.”

Most glaring

Reyes said that the most glaring in the PNR is that it totally ignores the recommendations of UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions Philip Alston.

Alston visited the Philippines in February 2007. Among his recommendations include: that the extrajudicial executions be eliminated from counterinsurgency operations; that the principle of command responsibility be ensured as a basis for criminal liability to prosecute military officers; and, that the Inter-Agency Legal Action Group (IALAG) be abolished. According to Alston, the IALAG’s central purpose is to prosecute and punish members of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its purported front groups whenever there is any legal basis for doing so.
Since then, the Arroyo government has not put a stop the counterinsurgency program Oplan Bantay Laya (Operation Freedom Watch), no high-ranking military official has been prosecuted and the IALAG continues to function.

Killings

The PNR states, “The Philippine government has taken firm measures to address the problem of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances. Addressing this most urgent concern, by bringing their perpetrators to justice and preventing such killings in future, remains a priority of Government. Due to a coordinated, multi-agency approach that gathered momentum in 2007, both government and civil society have indicated a significant drop in incidents for the past year. The Philippine National Police reported that the incidence of killings of activists and media dramatically declined from 2006 to 2007.”

Editha Burgos, mother of missing activist Jonas Burgos, believes otherwise. She said that the reduction in the number of cases of extrajudicial killings and disappearances could not be attributed to the efforts of the government.

Mrs. Burgos said that the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) is a party to the cover-up. “It took us six months to get the documents from the CHR which could help us expedite our search for Jonas.” If not for the writ of amparo, Mrs. Burgos said, they will not be able to get hold of the documents.

April 28 marks the first year since Jonas’ disappearance. Mrs. Burgos said they have exhausted all democratic processes, including writing to the President but they did not find her son.

The PNR cited the creation of Task Force Usig to address the killings. Mrs. Burgos said that the Task Force always tries to discredit the figures of human rights group Karapatan (Alliance for the Advancement of Human Rights) and to demonize the victims. “They called Jonas a terrorist/communist.”

NCCP’s Reyes also said that the PNR fails to mention that this year, at least 14 civilians have been killed while two others have been missing.

Free press

The PNR states, “The Philippines has one of the freest presses in the world. The country has a proliferation of numerous publications, broadcast programs and internet news sites. Remedies and complaints mechanisms are available to the media to ensure their freedom and independence.”

The UPR Watch noted how the Arroyo regime and its allies ‘continuously try to muzzle and intimidate the press, quell legitimate dissent, and prevent the public from knowing about its grand schemes of corruption.’ It said, “Nowhere in the report is there a mention of Proclamation 1017, Executive Order 464, the calibrated preemptive response rule and other efforts to violate our civil and political rights.”

Undeserving
 
In a statement, families of victims and rights advocates called on the United Nations Human Rights Council to hold the Arroyo regime accountable for the human rights violations in the country.

The UPR Watch further said, “The Philippine government does not deserve to sit in the UNHRC. The Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal (PPT) Second Session on the Philippines said that it is unacceptable that the Government of the Republic of the Philippines is a member of the UNHRC because it undermines the credibility of the UN in this field; it is an intolerable offense to the victims; and is a denial of the many well documented denunciations of the dramatic violations of human rights in the Philippines.” Bulatlat