CODAL finds
unacceptable Pres. Arroyo’s creation of a probe body to investigate
political killings without any consultation from the victims and the human
rights sector to assure the public that the body is genuinely
independent. Although we have condemned Pres. Arroyo, the PNP, the AFP
and the DOJ for their silence and inaction in the past five years while
the killings were going on, we would have welcomed Pres. Arroyo’s attempt
for the creation of a probe body if it is genuinely independent, effective
and credible because it is transparent and consultative. Even if CODAL
finds it encouraging that the President has essentially abandoned Task
Force Usig as it has failed to gain any credibility from the victims and
the public, it is condemnable that another body is created without
putting up mechanisms that will ensure its independence, credibility and
effectiveness, thereby condemning that body to the same fate as TF Usig.
Suspension of
public officials who fail to appear and other powers
For any investigating
body to be truly independent, it must have fiscal and administrative
autonomy from any government institution, especially from the executive.
The Commission must have all the powers under Section 37, Chapter 9, Book
I of the Administrative Code of 1987 including the power to issue summons
and subpoena duces tecum and contempt powers, specifically the power to
facilitate contempt sanctions against anyone who refuses to implement that
Commission’s order. The President must assure that any member of the AFP,
the PNP and any official will appear before the Commission, and that any
duly notified executive official who fails to appear will be summarily
punished by the President herself with suspension from whatever position
or rank until that official appears before the Commission. The
Commission’s Secretariat including a legal team of human rights lawyers
must also be independent from the executive.
Power to Prosecute
4 categories of human rights violations
Furthermore, the body
must not only have the power to investigate the killings, abductions,
torture and massacres but also the power to prosecute the perpetrators to
ensure that no one will belittle its authority. It must, therefore, be
clothe with an inherent deputization from the Justice Department to file
the necessary criminal and administrative charges against suspected
perpetrators of these very serious human rights violations, specifically
the four categories of killings, abductions, torture and
massacres. As such, the Commission’s budget should allow it to get the
services of human rights lawyers who will conduct such prosecution.
The body, for
purposes of credibility, must be acceptable to the victims of human rights
violation and must have at least one representative each from the
victims and the human rights sector. The Commission on Human
Rights must also have one representative sitting in that Commission.
The failure to appoint any representative from the human rights sector
while appointing representatives from the NBI and the Department of
Justice, two institutions which have failed to seriously investigate and
prosecute perpetrators of the killings in the past five years immediately
puts into question the credibility of the body.
For purposes of
transparency, the Commission must be required to transmit regular
reports to the President, the respective Human Rights Committees of the
House and the Senate, and the victims or human rights groups. The
entire proceedings before the Commission must be held in public, and all
its documents must accessible to the victims, the suspects and the public
in general. Furthermore, before the Commission is established, there
must be consultations with affected sectors , organized by the Commission
on Human Rights not only to recommend members of that Commission from
which the President must chose from but also to ensure that the interest
of the victims and those affected by the Commission’s work will be
considered in the crafting of the Order establishment such a Commission.
Lastly, Pres. Arroyo
must allow the Human Rights Council of the United Nations, including
the UN Special Rapporteurs for Extra-judicial Killings and Involuntary
Disappearance to gain access to that Commission’s proceedings so that
they may monitor its work and therefore assure the international community
of the independence and transparency of such a body.
CODAL urges that both
Houses of Congress also issue a joint resolution calling for such an
independent body and urging the President to dissolve the Commission
pending the institution of independent mechanism. CODAL urges
President Arroyo to desist from implementing Executive Order
creating ‘The Commission to Conduct an Independent Probe on Killing of
Media Practitioners and Militant Activists’ and immediately institute the
mechanism for a genuine independent probe acceptable to the victims and
the public.
Absent mechanisms to
ensure independence, effectiveness and credibility through transparency
and consultations, the latest probe body will be nothing more than a
publicity stunt aimed at pacifying the snowballing criticism of the people
and the international community over the political killings, without any
serious attempt to identify the perpetrators and the masterminds behind
these attacks.
Transmittal of the
International Criminal Court Treaty to the Senate
CODAL takes this
opportunity to also reiterate its previous call on Pres. Arroyo to
immediately transmit the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court
to the Senate so that the Senate may be able to fulfill its constitutional
function of concurring or not concurring with the ratification of that
treaty. Since that treaty has been ratified by the Office of the
President, when Pres. Joseph Estrada signed it on 28 December 2000,
failure to submit it to the Senate will only strengthen the suspicion by
the international community that Pres. Arroyo is guilty of human rights
violations and is therefore afraid of the ICC.
If Philippine courts
are unable or unwilling to prosecute human rights violations, the ICC
remains a viable venue for redress by victims of human rights violations,
especially now that the impeachment proceeding against Pres. Arroyo for
human rights violations has been dismissed by the Justice Committee.
Pres. Arroyo’s withholding of the treaty from the Senate is not only a
violation of the Constitution but also a violation of our good faith
obligation under international law to implement treaties signed or
ratified by our Presidents. CODAL urges the international community,
including the government of the 100 countries who are members of the ICC,
to urge Pres. Arroyo to transmit the treaty for concurrence.
Reference Person:
Atty. Neri Javier Colmenares
August 21, 2006
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