Forensic Training for the CHR Investigators

9 May 2009
Cagayan De Oro City

MESSAGE

delivered by

LEILA M. DE LIMA
Chairperson, Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines

Good morning. Thank you all for being here.

In particular, let me thank the Asia Foundation represented here today by Ms. Damcell Torres, and the Australian Agency for International Development. Their generous support helped make this forensic training possible. And their efforts to help strengthen, the enforcement of human rights in the Philippines are appreciated.

Let me also thank the Equipo Peruano de Anthropologia Forense, especially Dr. Jose Pablo Baraybar and Prof. Ellen Salter-Pedersen. These experts on the subject of forensic anthropology hail all the way from Peru, and are here today to share their experiences and expertise.

The Philippines and Peru share a common political history, from the era of Hispanic colonization, a shady dictatorial regime led by Ferdinand Marcos and Alberto Fujimori, respectively, to violent anti-government insurgencies led by the Communist Party of the Philippines and Muslim insurgents here in the Philippines and the Shining Path, also a Communist Party, in Peru. More pertinent to our forensic seminar this weekend is the shared history of political killings marked by impunity and brazenness. However, the most important similarity between the Filipinos and Peruvians is our common resolve to solve crimes of impunity and hold accountable those responsible for these crimes. To heal the wounds inflicted by political atrocities ultimately must begin with accountability, which is a common cause between our two countries. We appreciate their participation, and we look forward to learning more from them about forensic science. As we assimilate the expertise and methods, I enjoin all of you, our CHR investigators, to reflect on the significance of your own work and its importance in the long and arduous process of national healing which is shared with other peoples like the Peruvians.

Let me also thank you, the investigators, medical doctors, and other participants, from the Commission. It's good to see all of you here. This training session is important, as, with your resolve to make it significant, it must have a direct effect on the Commission’s investigative and other functions. The prospect of a Commission, with a more robust capacity to investigate human rights violations, is heartening, especially in light of the current Philippine context.

A culture of impunity continues to permeate Philippine society, from more mundane levels all the way to the truly heinous. A traffic citation can be avoided by handing over a bribe. A government contract can be won by offering a kickback, or forming a cartel.

But the impunity with which laws are violated becomes even more atrocious, when the subject of human rights in the Philippines is considered. Detainees are subjected to inhumane treatment and torture. Journalists are threatened and killed. Student leaders are abducted. Activists are murdered. Street children here in Mindanao are stabbed. And while these in themselves are atrocious enough, it get worse-perpetrators are hardly found and held accountable.

It's been pointed out before, but this point is worth repeating. One of the most stark illustrations of the current culture of impunity is the fact that murders have taken place, during the daytime, out on the street, where the murderers didn't even feel the need to cover their faces. Their confidence in their ability to evade justice was absolute.

One reason these wrongdoers are able to evade justice is the lack of evidence. Unfortunately, there continues to be an over reliance on testimonial evidence, and this becomes a prosecution's Achilles heel.

Witnesses can be threatened, attacked, and killed. They may not even surface at all, for fear of death or injury. And crimes can be carried out in a way that leaves no witnesses. As a result, prosecutions are hindered, undermined, or are never even begun. And this gives perpetrators free rein, to rape and torture, maim and murder, over and over again.

Wrongdoers, by silencing witnesses, are able to evade conviction. This feeds into, and further empowers, the culture of impunity. The more we allow a culture where witnesses are intimidated or eliminated, in the long term, the less effort is needed by perpetrators to intimidate. Filipinos in general settle into a habit of remaining silent – and settle into a culture of indifference. And the real and present danger is that this impunity and indifference might become a more permanent feature of Philippine society.

We must stand firm against this creeping entrenchment of the culture of impunity. We must reiterate that a society where wrongdoers regularly go unpunished is completely unacceptable. And we must reassert our society's adherence to the rule of law, and to respect for fundamental human dignity.

One way to do this is to build up our country's capacity to make use of forensic methods. Over reliance on testimonial evidence has been an Achilles heel, but by complementing testimony with forensic evidence, we can reduce the ability of wrongdoers, to control the evidence available against them.

Wrongdoers may kill in an uninhabited place. Or they may threaten and murder witnesses. These are enough to prevent their prosecution.

The victim may be dead, but the corpse speaks volumes. The scene of the crime may have been uninhabited, but the place itself is a witness. Every contact leaves a trace, and killers leave pieces of themselves, and other identifiers, on the victim's body, and at the scene of the crime.

The evidence is there. It may come in the form of fibers, strands of hair, paint chips, blood stains, glass, DNA, other biological specimens, fingerprints, tool marks, tire marks, shoeprints, or something else. What is needed is the knowledge and the expertise, to sift through, identify, collect, document, and analyze this evidence.

For precisely that knowledge and expertise, we look to you, the participants in this forensic training session. The skills and information you will accumulate over the coming days, will have a direct effect on the ability of the Commission on Human Rights, to carry out its investigations.

We seek to break the stranglehold, which finds investigations undermined because of the lack of available witnesses. Hopefully, with your training, we will have additional possible sources of evidence. Hopefully, with your hard work, we will have other ways of finding out what really happened.

But there is another aspect to the use of forensic evidence, which is worth keeping in mind. Where the victim is dead, and witness have been silenced, there is a good chance that what really happened will never come out. Time will pass, and that death will be noted down as yet one more casualty in a long, sad litany of casualties, one more footnote in a government report, one more statistic. The world will move on, and it will forget.

You can change this. You can be the person who gives an anonymous buried corpse a name, or an unidentified skeleton, a face. You can be the person who examines a body and a crime scene, and pieces together the facts surrounding that person’s death. You can be the one who tells that person’s story, and in doing so allow the wheels of justice to turn, help apprehend and convict the perpetrator, and bring closure to a grieving family. You can be the person who gives that victim a voice.

It is not as if forensic anthropology is an alien science. We, as a country, have had the capabilities for such a long time. For those of you who have followed the Ted Failon case, you have witnessed how adamant the PNP can be in securing forensic evidence. You have seen how the police can threaten those who violate a crime scene with a charge of obstruction of justice. Imagine if all those tasked with securing forensic evidence were as firebrand as the investigators in the Failon case, and imagine if they were as diligent in ALL cases of crimes of impunity. Imagine if the Davao City police force and prosecutorial service were as stringent in investigating all cases of vigilantism – then we would not have this shortage of evidence to combat crime of impunity

This forensic training today, and over the coming days, forms part of our work to do away with the culture of impunity in the Philippines. I am personally directing all of you to start producing accurate and unimpeachable investigation reports that can withstand prosecutorial and judicial scrutiny. That is the objective. That is what will drive this Commission forward.

If it inspires you that this Commission that you work for has received such incredible public approval, that we are being recognized for what we can do, not criticized for what we cannot, then join me, your Chairperson. We will move forward in the struggle to put an end to crimes of impunity. And for today, the path forward for the CHR in Mindanao , starts with you. Be inspired in this workshop and be inspired in the work that will follow.

Again, thank you to the organizers and participants of this forensic training session. I wish you all the best, and may these next few days be enlightening and fruitful. Thank you.