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Orchid Garden Suites Hotel, City of Manila
24 November 2009
delivered by
LEILA M. DE LIMA
Chairperson
KEYNOTE MESSAGE
Good morning to all of you.
First of all, let me thank the Bureau of Immigration, led by Commissioner Marcelino Libanan, and represented today by Deputy Commissioner Enrique Galang, Jr. for allowing me to participate in this significant two-day event. Today and tomorrow, key officers and personnel of the Bureau, will take part in a seminar-workshop on human rights.
This event on human rights is vital. It is important because the work carried out by the Bureau, has direct implications for the human rights of countless individuals, both foreigners and Filipinos. A deeper and more thorough understanding of national and international human rights law will help ensure that the Bureau of Immigration will act as an advocate for, and a defender of human rights.
Human rights issues permeate the work carried out by the Bureau. Just this month, the Bureau of Immigration hosted the annual meeting of ASEAN Directors-General of Immigration Departments, as well as the ASEAN Immigration Intelligence Forum. The topics discussed at these fora included combating transnational crime, and the trafficking in persons.
These issues directly implicate human rights. Human trafficking, in particular, involves the human rights to life, to liberty and security of person, and to freedom of movement, as well as the prohibition of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, and of slavery and the slave-trade, in all its forms.
Human trafficking has many faces, from perpetrators to victims. The persons who commit the crime of human trafficking compose a vast network that seeks to take advantage of every gap in the bureaucracy – from loopholes in the law, to haphazard enforcement, absence of fastidious vigilance and even opportunities for corrupting public officers. The sums of money, which change hands, are enormous, and the lure of obtaining illegal gain permeates every actor, every stage of human trafficking operation. Many individuals involved in human trafficking do not fit the profile of our perceptions of common criminals. Within the scope of work of the Bureau, these criminals are as ordinary as they come. They are tourists, they are ordinary travelers, they are ship captains, freight operators, sea vessel owners. They are middlemen milling around seaports, airports. They infiltrate customs and law enforcement agencies. They are undetectable when we are not vigilant.
Victims, on the other hand, are shocking to behold. They are characterized as human cargo, robbed of their humanity and relegated to objects, property or possessions. Their worth is not couched in inherent dignity, as persons, as women, as children worthy of our protection and care. They are valued for their desperation, and their helplessness in enduring exploitation. While the unscrupulous rake pecuniary gain for trafficking, victims scrape the bottom of the proverbial can, often in places far away from where they can readily seek help.
You may very well see them everyday at immigration desks everywhere. They move under the guise of dubiously legal recruitment for employment. They slip through the seams of detection as ordinary passengers, on tour, on pilgrimage, on visits to fictitious relatives elsewhere and in the most horrible cases, as undeclared or falsely declared goods in the cargo bays, in containers.
By working to prevent human trafficking and bring accountability to traffickers, you are at the forefront of the effort, to protect the human rights of Filipinos, and of all individuals. And human trafficking is only one of the many human rights issues, where the personnel of the Bureau play a large part.
We, at the Commission on Human Rights (CHR), thank you and honor you, for your efforts to protect and promote the human rights, of individuals in our country, as well as around the world.
Let me also take this opportunity to thank the men and women of the CHR, who have been working hard to make this seminar-workshop a reality. In particular, let me thank the Human Rights Education and Research Office, led by Director Ana Elzy Ofreneo.
The CHR has always stood ready to support other government agencies and institutions, who wish to strengthen their capacities, in terms of human rights. This event is a concrete manifestation of that part of our mandate, and I thank the individuals whose efforts have brought this seminar-workshop to life.
Finally, let me directly address all the participants at this seminar-workshop. Thank you very much for being here, and we appreciate your setting aside time, attention and energy, in order to further develop your expertise in terms of human rights law.
Over the next two days, you will be asked to identify the human rights issues that exist, in your various spheres of influence and beyond. There will be discussion of the International Bill of Human Rights, which is composed of several fundamental human rights treaties and instruments, and on which is founded the international framework for human rights protection and promotion.
And there will be discussion of specific rights, and specific legal and treaty provisions, aimed at bringing human rights home, to the level of your day-to-day tasks, responsibilities, and decision-making.
From there, the emphasis will shift to you, the members of the Bureau of Immigration, to your insights and recommendations, to your proposals, vision, and eventually your concrete application of ideas gleaned from this experience.
Whether this event is a success is something that will be borne largely on your shoulders. Do not take human rights lightly. Do not undertake its protection carelessly. It is a significant responsibility, but I am certain that you are up to this task.
In the end, I firmly believe that each and every member of the Bureau of Immigration is just as concerned with human rights, as each and every member of the Commission on Human Rights.
We are, after all, all human beings, with parents and children, siblings and relatives, friends and loved ones. The human rights possessed by someone working overseas, are the same rights possessed by your father or daughter. The human dignity inherent in a foreigner working in the Philippines, is the same dignity inherent in your own mother or son.
The prohibition on cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment does not merely protect our countrymen working abroad. It also protects all of us here at home, as well as the people close to us, and who we hold dear.
When the human rights of any particular individual are respected, the protection of all our rights is strengthened. And when human rights are undermined anywhere, and for anyone, this threatens all of us as well.
We all have a stake in ensuring that human rights are respected and protected. I am therefore certain that in the Bureau of Immigration, we have an erstwhile ally in the effort to further human rights, in the Philippines and throughout the world.
The Philippines needs more government leaders and citizens of stature, who are true advocates for the human rights of Filipinos, and of all people.
We need much more manpower to fulfill the promises of human rights protection and promotion. We need a vastly larger network of individuals who are conscious of how deeply human rights permeate every stratum of human life.
Indeed, human rights are not limited to our agency alone, and the practice of human rights defense is not limited by the names of our agencies. To say that only those who work in the Commission on Human Rights are the ones devoted to human rights protection and promotion is incredibly inaccurate.
Whether one is a member of the CHR, the BoI, the COMELEC, the PNP, the AFP, the MMDA or the DND, a human rights aspect pervades in the nature of all our work. The list of government agencies may seem terribly long, but human rights remains larger than the government itself.
As we have seen, in the wake of typhoon “Ondoy”, calamities cut across all divides. Rich and poor, educated and uneducated, the virtuous or rakes, public servants or privately employed, the calamity affects all. And the repercussions to human rights apply to all.
The most outstanding feature of the aftermath of the recent flooding is the superhuman effort from all sectors to alleviate human suffering. It matters little if one is from the Bureau of Immigration or from any other agency. It matters little whether one is from government or not. Everyone has the capacity to make a contribution. After all, human rights are inherent to everyone.
We look forward to seeing the personnel of the Bureau of Immigration, take up this mantle and take on this cause. There are many human rights issues directly related to the functions of the BoI, and it is not the exclusive realm of the CHR to address these issues, only on the basis of characterizing them as human rights issues.
Human rights are fragile, as I have come to realize in my brief tenure as the Chairperson of the CHR. I had never before seen the grief, the suffering, the resentment and anger of those robbed of the most basic rights as I had seen in the last 18 months. And yet, as taken as I am by the situation, I can only do so much. The CHR by itself cannot do enough. Civil society at its current capacity cannot do enough. We need more to do much more. Your potential to do much good is significant, through your offices and positions of authority, as well as within your own cities, municipalities and communities.
Human rights affect us all. It is incumbent upon all of us to do our part to ensure, that they are meaningfully respected and protected.
May this seminar-workshop be enlightening, fruitful and a catalyst for future concrete action.
Thank you very much.