Statement of

Chairperson Loretta Ann P. Rosales

On the occasion of the inauguration of the
CHR Regional Office in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao
3 May 2012, Cotabato City

The establishment of the CHR ARMM Regional Office is the cornerstone of the CHR's institutional response to the severe human rights challenges in the region. Let there be no doubt about it – the strengthening of the human rights infrastructure in the ARMM is essential if we are to end impunity and restore human rights as a way of life. The CHR ARMM Regional Office, under the able leadership of Atty. Laisa Alamia, will provide the hospitable environment for collective action to achieve concrete governance reforms that would in turn guarantee the human rights of every person in ARMM. Recognizing that the ability and capacity to respect, protect and fulfill human rights for all is the highest expression of the right to self-determination, it is our hope and at the same time our mission for the CHR ARMM Regional Office to undertake a tranformative and catalytic role in the ARMM as it evolves politically and socially.

In this light, I call on the peoples of the ARMM and their leaders to support the work of the CHR ARMM Regional Office. It was you yourselves who set the terms of its establishment and defined its program of action as set forth in the Cotabato City Declaration adopted during the recently-concluded Conference on Human Rights in the ARMM. We have only facilitated its birth. Now its destiny lies in your hands. Its success will be critical to your own success as a nation espousing the ideals of justice, peace and democracy.