BY EVANGELINE DE VERA
"HEARTBREAKING."
This was how Leila de Lima, chairwoman of the
Commission on Human Rights, yesterday described the negative
"perception" of the public of the human rights situation in the
country.
De Lima, speaking at the sidelines of the
celebration of the 60th universal declaration of human rights
held at the Heritage Hotel in Pasay City, was referring to the
statement of Archbishop Angel Lagdameo, president of the
Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, that the
Philippine human rights situation is a source of "shame and
embarrassment."
"That perception is heart-breaking. I don’t
want to adopt that perception because that is too extreme, too
negative. It’s stinging but maybe there is some truth to it," De
Lima said.
She said what contributes to this perception
is the seeming impunity of perpetrators of human rights abuses
and the failure of government and the courts to prosecute them.
This culture of impunity, she said, thwarts
efforts to promote and protect human rights.
"We have almost zero convictions against
arbitrary arrests. We are nowhere near free of human rights
abuses. So much still needs to be done. There is no single
conviction of human rights violators. There’s no adequate
housing for the poor, no equitable distribution of lands, no
lasting peace, not enough education available for the children,
no equal accessibility to justice, no right to freedom of
speech, of expression and assembly," she said in her speech.
De Lima said she has created a special
committee that would focus on cases of extra-judicial killings
and forced disappearances.
She said it cannot be said that the
government has been sitting idly while human rights abuses are
being committed. She said the government has created task forces
to investigate such cases, while the judiciary introduced the
writs of amparo and habeas data to further safeguard people’s
rights.
She said the CHR is proposing to Congress
more stringent laws, including a measure where victims of
military operations should be compensated.
She said another challenge to the CHR is the
cases of extrajudicial killings of journalists and activists,
the RCBC massacre, the Parañaque shootout, and cases where there
are victims of crossfire.
She said the CHR is "under-resourced" and the
fifth member of the Commission has yet to be named.
Cardinal Gaudencio Rosales called on
Filipinos to respect human rights everyday and not only during
the annual observance of the International Human Rights Day.
The Manila archbishop said it is saddening
that abuses continue to happen all over the world today, not
only in the Philippines.
An official of the United Nations Children’s
Fund (Unicef) proposed that the government tap world boxing
champ Manny Pacquiao to champion children’s rights because the
Philippines is not likely to meet its millennium development
goal on universal primary education by 2015.
Colin Davis, Unicef deputy country
representative, said school enrolment rates are falling in many
regions of the country.
"Universal primary education, one of the
Millennium Development Goals and rights of the child, is
unlikely to be met by the target date of 2015 at current
performance," Davis said.
President Arroyo, in her speech, said there
is "still a lot more to do" but government is "working very
hard" to meet the MDG on universal primary education.
She ordered Social Welfare Secretary Esperanza Cabral and the
Child Welfare Council to craft a Children’s Defense Fund, which
would shield children from conflict and intensify government
protection for them. – With Regina Bengco and Gerard Naval
