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Astoria Plaza , Pasig City
11 February 2010
delivered by
LEILA M. DE LIMA
Chairperson
THE PHILIPPINE HUMAN RIGHTS SITUATION
I. INTRODUCTION
Good afternoon to all of you.
First of all, let me express my appreciation for the fact that the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), under the leadership of Acting Director-General Augusto Santos, is moving to further mainstream the human rights-based approach, throughout its work in 2010 and beyond.
Economic policies and initiatives reach out and affect the farmer, eking out a living on her particular plot of land, the young person entering the job market for the very first time, the parent having to bid his children goodbye, once again, in order to find gainful employment on foreign shores.
This is why NEDA is so important, and this is why it is crucial for this institution to integrate human rights, in all its levels, and all its efforts. As NEDA undertakes this significant integration, it will have in the Commission on Human Rights, a steadfast ally and a source of support.
Our time together today is limited unfortunately, so allow me to proceed to the meat of my discussion. I was asked to talk about the current human rights situation in the Philippines , the problems curently plaguing our society, the issues which bedevil our attempts to improve on the status quo, trends both for ill and for better, and a number of ways to improve on this status quo.
Let me first emphasize one characteristic of the human rights-based approach which I believe is of particular importance.
For far too long, and in far too many institutions, developmental work was seen as something aimed at meeting the needs of beneficiaries. A particular community needed access to clean water, or a certain area needed a school built, in order to provide basic education to the local children, or something similar or more. People had human needs, which institutions and government agencies sought to fulfill.
The human rights-based approach goes beyond that. Instead of seeing individuals as beneficiaries whose needs must be met, it views people as holders of rights, which must be fulfilled. This difference is crucial. Under the previous framework, when a need was left unfulfilled, this was merely seen as an unsatisfactory outcome. Under the human rights-based approach, however, when a human right is not respected, a violation of a legal obligation has taken place, and the individual whose right was violated can seek redress or reparation.
So the members of the community without clean water, can legally demand that their right to adequate water be fulfilled. And the children who lack access to a basic education, can demand that the government fulfill its legal obligation in this regard.
We have gone beyond the notion that the fulfillment of these needs depends on the benevolence of government leaders, the current state of political or electoral calculations, and what is convenient or easy to do. Instead, international and national legal obligations exist, which the government and other stakeholders must comply with, or else they will be in breach.
Let me now discuss some of the key features of the current human rights situation in the Philippines . For brevity’s sake, whenever possible, I will also go into some of the ways in which we are attempting to improve on the status quo.
Given the fast approaching national elections, certain human rights issues and problems have been surfacing. Of particular concern is the problem of disenfranchisement.
Over the recent history of the Philippines , and beyond, certain groups and sectors have had their right to vote repeatedly and systematically undermined. These groups, the vulnerable sectors are: persons with disabilities, indigenous peoples, internally displaced persons, detainees, first-time voters, the elderly, migrant workers, and more. Election after election, members of these groups have been faced with difficulties, as they have attempted to cast their ballots, difficulties relating to accessiblity, education, and more.
Now why is this so important?
It is because when a particular group is repeatedly disenfranchised, it becomes invisible in the eyes of many politicians. With the power of their vote denied to them, they can be safely disregarded or ignored by elected officials and candidates. And this then leads to even more human rights violations.
Detainees continue to be subjected to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. Internally displaced persons continue to face the indiscriminate use of force in their locales. The elderly continue to face discrimination in the job market. Without their vote, in the eyes of many politicians, these people don’t count. They no longer matter.
A. Enfranchisement
That is why the CHR has been working to help enfranchise these vulnerable groups, in time for the 2010 national elections. Unfortunately, we have not had the success that we hoped for. However, there have been some bright spots. For instance, with respect to detainees, the CHR and other like-minded institutions and individuals were able to successfully advocate for mechanisms to be put in place, to allow this particular sector to finally, for the first time, cast their ballots. Much remains to be done for detainees, so that their right to vote will be implemented, not just on paper, but in reality, but already this was welcome progress.
Enfranchisement, we believe, is key to improving the state of human rights in the Philippines , as long as it takes place in the context of truly free, fair and genuine elections.
B. Transparency and Inclusiveness
Let me also say that transparency and the inclusion of all stakeholders will be crucial, as we try to improve things. When we sought to improve the state of things for disenfranchised sectors, we made sure to consult them and their representatives directly, in workshops and other fora, held throughout the Philippines . Transparency and inclusion will help lead to greater trust, strengthened partnership, better coordination of efforts, and increased ownership over the process and its outcome.
Also, in these and other similar events, we attempt to bring together both rights-holders and duty-bearers, with the CHR acting as a bridge between the different sides. One particular project, for instance, involves bringing together members of civil society, and members of government security forces, belonging to the same localities, in order to craft community-improvement projects together.
Another key human rights issue involves the continuation of armed conflict in the Philippines . Our nation possesses two of the longest-running insurgencies in our region. The human cost over these decades has been nothing short of catastrophic, measured in the loss of lives, children orphaned, families repeatedly uprooted, and continuing crushing poverty, inequality and despair. And this dismal state of things is set to continue, even as a lasting peace settlement appears to remain elusive.
Moreover, armed conflict is one of the roots of human rights violations, carried out in the name of anti-insurgency operations. Members of civil society have been villified and branded enemies of the state. They, along with members of the opposition and media, have been placed on orders of battle. They have been threatened, injured, abducted and murdered, civilians lumped together with combatants, in direct violation of international humanitarian law and human rights law.
Achieving a lasting peace would go a long way toward ending human rights abuses in the Philippines . As things stand today, and as noted in reports coming out of local and international organizations, the ongoing armed conflict and the counter-insurgency campaign being waged, only set the stage for even more torture, abductions and extrajudicial killings in the country.
As an illustration to the issue of the counter-insurgency, we find that the latest episode involving the military and 43 arrested health workers in Morong, Rizal is another chilling distraction in the campaign to achieve peace.
Instead of a determination before the proper investigative authorities to lawfully determine the suspicions of the armed forces, the arrested health workers were instead confined incommunicado, for 1 ½ days, from the outside world, following the raid in a farm in Rizal. Time and again, we had objected to the propensity of the military to carry out their own investigations within the confines of military camps, absent any civilian mechanism for the preservation of human rights. These ostensible investigations often become what we had constantly fear – interrogation cum torture.
This had always been the feature of military involvement in detentions. And where time and again, due process is violated at the very beginning of the process of securing our peace, the integrity of the government peace plan is jeopardized. The latest incident in Morong, Rizal, only underscores how poorly we perform in exacting compliance from the military to respect human rights, despite superhuman efforts over the years to promote the same.
At stake here is not just the peace process. At stake more fundamentally are human rights – one's right to the integrity of his or her own body, one's right to life, to due process, one's right against torture or ill-treatment and to be presumed innocent and to avail of judicial resort for the violation of any and all of these rights.
Finally, where the very same persons that work for the progress of development, whether it be for the the development of the right to health, as in the case of the health workers in Morong, or other human rights defenders working for a plethora of developmental issues elsewhere, are subjected to this long-standing propensity for violence from the very people sworn to defend the People, how then can development, at any level, be it at the grassroots, where the impact is direct and very potent, or elsewhere, the conclusion becomes frighteningly clear – there can be no protection for development while we continue to crush human rights.
Other key human rights issues in the country today involve poverty, education, health and inequality. Bright spots do exist, given that the country has a high probability of attaining many of its Millenium Development Goals targets, but significant challenges remain.
A. At the National Level
High probabilities of success exist with respect to eradicating poverty and hunger, reducing child mortality, combating HIV and
AIDS, and increasing access to safe drinking water, among others. This is good news, and the efforts undertaken to bring these about should be lauded.
That said, low probabilities of success exist with respect to achieving universal primary education, improving maternal health, and providing access to reproductive health services. Already there is a clear need to fulfill the rights to education and to health, among others. And these weaknesses will only snowball, so that for instance, the lack of education will lead to joblessness, and an inadequate standard of living, later on, which may then be passed on to the next generation, and the next.
B. At the Regional Level
Issues of inequality also exist, so that the numbers may look good, looking at indicators for the nation as a whole, but some of these may then unravel, when considering particular areas or regions. The Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, for example, continues to be plagued by the problems of poverty, of underweight children, and of hunger. Further, the ratio of girls to boys in elementary school remains an issue.
This inequality among regions within the same country must be dealt with. Human rights are universal. They belong to all people. And they must be respected, protected and fulfilled, in all our regions and provinces, or else the government will be in breach of its legal duties and obligations.
We now turn to one of the bleaker chapters of recent Philippine human rights history, namely, election-related violence, its roots in abuse, and the future violations that it brings about.
We are all familiar with the pall of unspeakable evil that descended on Sitio Masalay, Brgy. Salman, Municipality of Ampatuan , Maguindanao. By any measure conceivable, the murder of at least 57 unarmed civilians in what has been called the worst election-related episode of violence, is truly a human rights nightmare.
The extent of the human rights issues in the Ampatuan, Maguindanao Massacre spill well past matters of political violence. It is more than the issues of untrammeled autocratic power at the local level, unenforced gun control in the context of proliferating private militias, and absolute corruption wrought by political dynasties. And as monumentally embarrassing as the label of the “most dangerous place for journalists in the world” is for the country, the issues are more expansive than free speech and a free media.
At the moment, as the country moves forward from the murders and into prosecution, the issues of speedy and even-handed justice now occupy the nation. However, justice itself has been subjected to other attached issues, such as political partisanship, unjustified VIP treatment of suspects, and unfathomable prosecutorial strategies involving doubtful charges of rebellion, which, by the way, was also the basis for a mysterious proclamation of martial law.
Here’s an emboldened local elite to whom the national government has long been indebted to. Had they in fact been bold enough to murder 57 persons in one fell swoop, and allegedly, more than 200 prior, in a wave of local political terror over the duration of the now doomed dynasty of the Ampatuans? Had they been bold enough to harbor the improbable possibility of escaping accountability for the 57 killed in November, just as they had never been held accountable for the deaths of many others over the years?
It is in the context of this extended time line that we have the unenviable task of sifting through the numerous human rights concerns that must go hand in hand with the indelible memory of November 23, 2009 and the sensational, on-going litigation involving the Ampatuans.
What we have seen so far is tremendously disturbing. As much as the nation must sustain the focus on obtaining justice for the 57 victims, there are in fact, thousands, hundreds of thousands and perhaps, even millions of victims in this sorry episode. We do not merely refer to the 200 odd victims of “chainsaw killings” or those who had been buried alive, animating the legend of the Ampatuan clan's notorious legacy of brutality. We are referring to the population of Maguindanao, that had been subjected to the terror that often comes with the presence of sizable private armies and rival clans. We are referring to the what we had seen through the lenses of the national media that had descended on Maguindanao in the aftermath of the massacre – dusty, dirt roads, minimal commercial activity save for the most basic and primitive of agriculture, and abundant impoverishment, all of which stand in most shocking contrast to the opulence of the mansions, fleets of luxury cars, droves of armed, private militias controlled by the Ampatuans.
It does not end there, unfortunately. Every imaginable monkey wrench to a functional local government, we have found in Maguindanao, largely because of the commission of this odious massacre. We saw how government services came to a standstill for reasons that con only be attributed to an illegal directive from the local chief executive. Death certificates were not issued, investigations were not launched at the local level, law enforcement could not function, and peace and order hung on a precarious balance. We also found the Philippine National Police had known of not only the proliferation of illegal firearms, not only the circulation of military-grade weapons, but incredibly, had known that the ruling clan was behind much of it. It is a stupendous omission that bespeaks the subservience of the local police to the Ampatuans and not to the rule of law.
How large then is the scope of this dismal atmosphere?
Isn't it quite possible that the victims in this protracted disaster are actually the millions of Filipinos who would not have stood for it?
Just as Ms. Jacqueline Badcock has illustrated to us, human rights and development are hardly separable, and thus, the prevailing circumstance in Maguindanao cannot conceivably be categorized solely as one or the other. But that is stating the obvious. Of course it is a human rights and developmental disaster, to which we had all been tipped off not only by swirling rumors of the Ampatuans, rife in and around Mindanao, not only by the consistent economic data indicating a perpetual distinction Maguindanao has for profound impoverishment. Many had known for so long.
The important question now – now that we can reasonably infer the Ampatuan's fall from grace, now that we are upon a new election, a new set of local officials, and a new national administration – is whether there is a way out of the bowels of this long-standing climate of disaster in Maguindanao. Many issues inextricably linked to both human rights and development, must now be addressed if we are to find not only a resolution to the murders, the injustice, violence and the current, general catastrophe in Maguindanao, but infinitely more significant, a working plan to usher in a positive change come the next administration.
VII. A WHOLE HOST OF OTHER ISSUES
Of course, as flammable as the issue of the Ampatuan, Maguindanao Massacre may be, there are many other human rights issues with tremendous impact on development that exist in the Philippines . While strides are being taken by different sectors and different institutions to improve on the state of things, so much more needs to be done.
Speedy Justice
One , there is a need to find ways to further unclog our courts and dockets, in order to provide more expeditious and accessible dispute resolution to the people. The current state of things is untenable. When rights are abused, individuals go to the courts in order to seek redress. They cannot be kept waiting for years or decades, if we are to truly respect the right to an effective remedy.
A Free and Protected Media
Two , media personnel and other human rights defenders must be better protected. Too many reporters are harassed or killed. Human rights defenders are threatened, abducted or murdered.
Without the media and civil society, human rights become more easily threatened and undermined.
Corruption
Three , corruption must be dealt with and ended. It is corruption which feeds the power structures of warlords and their clans. It is corruption which arms private armies, and funds electoral fraud. And it is corruption which siphons off the resources which should have gone to new schools, irrigation facilities, health centers, livelihood projects, and other projects aimed at delivering a higher standard of living to all.
Extralegal, Vigilante-Style Killings
Four , vigilante killings and the use of death squads must end. The justice system must be strengthened and improved on, not completely circumvented through the use of lethal force by armed goons. Government officials and private individuals who support these thugs, or who are complicit in their use must be investigated and prosecuted. And the public must be convinced of the peril of vigilante justice.
Indigenous People's Rights and Mining
Five , indigenous people’s human rights must be respected and protected, especially in the context of the militarization of communities, as well as the operations of mining companies. The recent abductions in Agusan del Sur only draw our attention back to the tension involved when tribal disputes are fostered, instead of pacified, by government security forces.
And we have seen how mining operations have contributed, at times catastrophically, to disruption of peaceful habitation of the land and the destruction of a community’s surrounding environment. The case of OceanaGold in Didipio, Nueva Vizcaya underscores the difficult balance we have to obtain in order to encourage both sustainable economic exploitation of natural resources, and economic social and cultural benefit to the communities that inhabit the land, especially the indigenous peoples. The case of the Mindoro Nickel Project was another potentially explosive mining dispute between capital and indigenous inhabitants. For now the conflict had been deferred pending further evaluation, but we must remain on guard in ensuring that any plan for exploiting mineral deposits, in Mindoro or elsewhere, delivers the greatest benefit to all Filipinos.
The Extension of Land Reform
Six , violence related to agrarian reform and land disputes must be prevented. The redistribution of land is a hotbed of vested interests, and has already seen so much bloodshed and loss of life. Agriculture remains one of the most important economic activities in the country. To ensure growth and development in this sector, the very real and unavoidable social dimension of agrarian reform must be carefully and successfully navigated.
Land Use, Housing, Forced Evictions and Demolitions
Seven , housing issues, especially in relation to informal settlers and the urban poor, continue. All persons have the right to adequate housing, and human dignity is undermined when large sections of populations are forced to live in squalor. To make matters worse, evictions have been carried out in ways which only further denigrate the humanity of members of impoverished communities.
The impact of poor housing on the economic productivity of human capital, and of land use are very serious human rights and development issues as we stand under the shadow of climate change, burgeoning urban populations, and the ceiling limit of government infrastructure and services.
Migrant Workers
Eight , migrant workers rights must be better protected. In the short term, the government must do a better job of ensuring that our migrant workers are protected from abuse, from discrimination, and from legal frameworks which violate their rights. At the same time, however, there is also a need to end the policy of encouraging foreign employment as a band aid for the problematic job market here at home, because having to work in another country leads to so much dislocation, heartache and stress on the social fabric of Philippine families.
Non-State Actors as Perpetrators of Human Rights Violations
Another pressing issue is the constant threat of Non-State Armed Groups who carry out dastardly crimes against state security forces and civilians alike. The rising incidence of kidnapping for ransom, beheadings and other crimes against teachers, priests and aid workers has dampened development efforts throughout the country. New measures for maintaining security for aid workers and even large civilian populations from threats emanating from criminal groups such as the Abu Sayyaf Gang, Ondo Perez Gang and other rogue groups must become a priority.
Moving forward, what must be emphasized is that there is no one answer, or even set of answers, to the challenges we face. Improving the human rights situation requires that we deal with a complex, interlinked and interdependent fusion of vested interests, apathy, and legal and other frameworks which create systemic problems. Something as complicated as this requires that we bring as many solutions to the table, and apply them simultaneously across as broad a front as possible, throughout the country. And it will take time. That said, there are certain key components to any solution.
Some have already been mentioned, such as enfranchisement, free, fair and genuine elections, transparency, inclusiveness, and a lasting peace. Moreover, we need to develop a framework for meaningful accountability, increase the capacity of law enforcement to carry out investigations and gather evidence, and dismantle private armies and the power structures of warlords.
Other components are needed, and this goes back to the idea of the human rights-based approach. We must develop the capacity of rights-holders to call for their rights to be respected and protected, while at the same time strengthening the capacity of duty-bearers, to carry out their legal obligations under human rights law. Implicit in this approach is the idea that there are persons on both sides, including duty-bearers who are acting in good faith, and whose efforts must be supported.
Therefore, rights-holders and duty-bearers must be provided information, training and education with respect to what exactly human rights are, and the corresponding duties and obligations. Where resources are lacking, they must be found, but in addition, efficiency is key so that individuals and institutions can do more with less. Best practices from other countries, and within the Philippines must be highlighted so that we can learn from what has already worked in other places, and find ways to apply those lessons locally.
Bridges must also be created between rights-holders and duty-bearers because again, good faith does exist in individuals on both sides. There are common interests and common goals, and by achieving some measure of success while working jointly on these long hanging fruit, the foundation may be laid for success in the other more difficult areas.
VII. CONCLUSION
I end with this quote from the former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan:
“We will not enjoy security without development, we will not enjoy development without security, and we will not enjoy either without respect for human rights.”
Thank you very much.