The Philippine government is showing little signs of willingness or capacity to deliver justice to victims of human rights violations. This is the assessment made by the Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), a non-government organization promoting human rights issues in Asia. The AHRC made this assessment in a report it issued Dec. 21.

BY BULATLAT

The Philippine government is showing little signs of political will or capacity to deliver justice to victims of human rights violations. Instead, the Arroyo government is being asked to establish a truly independent body to probe extrajudicial killings.

This is the assessment and recommendation made by the Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), a non-government organization promoting human rights issues in Asia. The AHRC made this assessment in a report it issued Dec. 21 this year.

“With gross violations of human rights continuing unabated and avenues for seeking justice and redress completely lacking, the Philippine government’s institutions are showing little sign of having the will or capacity to deliver justice,” the AHRC stated in its report, titled Getting Away with Murder: Widespread Extrajudicial Killings Combine with a Defective System to Ensure Impunity and Injustice. “The human rights crisis in the country has worsened during 2006. There are numerous serious cases, in particular the shocking targeted extra-judicial killings of activists, enforced disappearance and torture, being documented almost daily. In fact, these gross violations have already become a subconsciously acceptable way of life for Filipinos. These rights violation cases only represent a fairly well-documented fraction of the reality of human rights – or the lack of – in the country.”

Based on data from Karapatan (Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights), there have been more than 185 extrajudicial killings in the Philippines in 2006 alone.

“While the government claims to have upheld human rights at home and abroad, in reality the victims of violations and their relatives are experiencing the complete opposite,” the AHRC continued. “The government’s election to two of the United Nations main organs – the Human Rights Council and the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) in May and November respectively – does not exonerate the government from its bleak human rights records.”

Ineffective policy investigation

The AHRC cited in particular what it described as the lack of effective investigations by the Philippine National Police (PNP).

“While the police are on occasion able to identify suspects, make arrests and file charges in court, the results of investigations are frequently being challenged or questioned by victims themselves,” the AHRC noted. “Police investigators likewise often make premature pronouncements as to the motive of the killings, and reject any suggestions from the victims’ families that may be helpful in the investigation of the case. The police have also adopted a strange definition of what they consider as been solved cases. Even if the police’s actions do not lead to the successful prosecution of the alleged perpetrators in court, and even if arrests of alleged perpetrators have not been made, they consider cases as being solved. Once the case is with the prosecutor, they reason, their job is done. What happens after that is someone else’s business.”

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