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INTERNATIONAL GROUPS LAUNCH PROBE ON HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN
PHILIPPINES  
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Anne Marxze Umil
December 18, 2020
Bulatlat
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_ “This is most definitely a global issue…We must not allow the
call for human rights to be hijacked. Accountability must be part of
the justice and democratic system.” _

Rights advocates from different countries express solidarity with the
Filipino people amid the continuing human rights violations.,
Screengrab of InvestigatePH

 

MANILA – Alarmed at the worsening situation of human rights in the
Philippines, church groups, political leaders and members of civil
society from different countries launched an international mission,
Dec. 17.

The initiative is dubbed as the Independent International Commission
of Investigation into Human Rights Violations in the Philippines or
Investigate PH. It aims to further substantiate the June 2020 report
by the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human
Rights. Its members intend to submit the findings to the International
Criminal Court (ICC) and to the other relevant UN bodies such as UN
Human Rights Council, UN Security Council, the UN General Assembly
Special Session.

During the online launch, Lee Rhiannon, former Senator from New South
Wales, Australia said several groups from the international community
have come together to raise the voice of the Filipino people. She said
that what is happening in the Philippines amounts to crimes against
humanity and that perpetrators must be held accountable.

“The evidence is overwhelming… one of my lasting memories of my
time in Manila is the number of people who said to me, ‘we need your
support, we need you and many others to speak out in your
country’,” Rhiannon said.

Rhiannon said that human rights violations in the Philippines have
been escalating since her last visit in Manila last year.

“This is most definitely a global issue. I do believe that the
international community has a responsibility to speak out. We must not
allow the call for human rights to be hijacked. Accountability must be
part of the justice and democratic system,” she said.

Other members of the Investigate PH High Level Commission include Rev.
Michael Blair, General Secretary of the United Church of Canada; Atty.
Jeanne Mirer, co-chair of the National Lawyers Guild International
Committee and President of the International Association of Democratic
Lawyers; Rev. Dr. Susan Henry-Crowe, General Secretary, General Board
of Church & Society, the United Methodist Church (US, Connectional);
Rev. Dr. Chris Ferguson, General Secretary, World Communion of
Reformed Churches and Archbishop Joris Vercammen of Old Catholic
Church in the Netherlands.

The investigation will also be through a hybrid of virtual and
physical fact findings and will cover the period from June 30, 2016
until the end of 2020. Primary sources will be victims, the relatives
of the victims, civil society organizations, experts as well as
government agencies.

While the Philippine government does not allow any independent bodies
to look into the human rights violations in the country, National
Union of Peoples’ Lawyers President Edre Olalia is optimistic that
Investigate PH can still pursue the investigation. He said that as far
as the Philippine government is concerned, the world is getting
smaller as many international bodies have expressed condemnation of
the human rights situation in the Philippines.

“The world is closed in because the (Human Rights) Council has
spoken although it is limited to technical assistance, the special
rapporteurs have spoken as well as the EU Parliament. There are moves
in the US Congress to pass a bill tying up human rights to military
and trade agreements, the EU Council has passed the counterpart
Magnitsky Law that will restrict travel and freeze funds of human
rights violators and the ICC preliminary report was just released. So
despite the difficulties, I think we can go around it because there
are many ways and forms to gather information,” Olalia said.

LOCAL REMEDIES NOT WORKING

Olalia said that one of the objectives of the investigation is to
verify if clear and measurable domestic remedies and mechanisms are
available and effective in providing redress and protection against
human rights violations.

“The question is, are these domestic remedies genuine,
effective and accessible?” Olalia said.

Cristina Palabay, Karapatan secretary general, welcomed the global
initiative as “domestic remedies are no longer working.”

She said that one key indicator that domestic remedies are working is
the 100 percent prosecution and conviction of the perpetrators both in
the drug war and other cases of human rights violations.

“Of course some would say this is wishful thinking but what do we
want as indicators to consider that these domestic mechanisms are
working? We need actual results. We want those who are doing the
killing on the ground and committing violations to stop what they’re
doing,” Palabay said.

She said that the Department of Justice review panel on the drug war,
for instance, has not submitted its report the UNHRC last November, a
commitment it made before the UN body last June.

According to reports, the DOJ said it will release the report this
month, citing the pandemic for the delay.

Olalia said that “token investigations and prosecutions given the
gravity and intensity of the violations, will fail in comparison.”

“Claims and allegations cannot measure up with matters of fact and
empirical data. One conviction vis-a-vis more than 5,000 killings
speaks volumes. The claims of domestic remedies and its availability
is always an excuse to take away the focus of bodies from looking into
the genuineness, effectiveness and accessibility of these domestic
remedies,” he added.

Palabay also added that they want to see the clear outcomes of these
mechanisms including DOJ’s Administrative Order No. 35, which
created the Inter-Agency Committee On Extra-Legal Killings, Enforced
Disappearances, Torture and Other Grave Violations of the Right to
Life, Liberty and Security of Persons.

INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY

IADL’s Mirer, meanwhile, said that putting pressure to their
respective governments to withdraw support from the Philippines is
also part of the international solidarity.

“We are hoping to activate all affiliated members to push
(worldwide) this kind of activity,” Mirer said.

Rev. Dr. Susan Henry-Crowe, general secretary of General Board of
Church & Society, United Methodist Church said they are “supporting
the moves of the US Congress to review the official development and
trade and economic arrangements to examine if these do or do not
further exacerbate human rights violations.”

“We also call for any military appropriations and official
development assistance to the Philippine government to be withheld
unless it demonstrates strict adherence to international humanitarian
law and human rights,” she added.

Meanwhile, Rev. Dr. Chris Ferguson, General Secretary of World
Communion of Reformed Churches said that the outcome of the
investigation is also a “deeper struggle for all people of
conscience to see that end of impunity.”

Ferguson said that they will mobilize the international community not
only to make this issue that won’t go away but also to show that to
continue measures against the people will be met with an international
outcry that will enforce change.

_Bulatlat.com is a product of the times. It was born right after the
ouster of the Estrada administration in 2001 by a politicized and
empowered citizenry who were tired of the blatant corruption by those
who claimed to work for the interests of the Filipino people.
Bulatlat.com seeks to reflect the people’s views and stand on issues
that affect their lives and their future — human rights and civil
liberties, national patrimony, workers and peasant rights and
interests, migrant rights and welfare, the rights and status of women,
indigenous people’s rights, the environment, among others._

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