THE Armed Forces of the Philippines and
Philippine National Police continue to dismiss killings of
leftists attributed to them as being part of purported communist
purges, despite considerable evidence to the contrary, a new
global report released by the New York-based Human Rights Watch
(HRW) said.
Titled "Democracy Charade Undermines Rights,"
the 581-page HRW report lambasted various governments for
claiming to be democrats but lagging behind in actual practice.
"Democracy has become the sine qua non of
legitimacy. Few governments want to be seen as undemocratic. Yet
the credentials of the claimants have not kept pace with
democracy’s growing popularity. These days, even overt dictators
aspire to the status conferred by the democracy label," said the
report which covers 75 countries.
In its four-page Philippine report, HRW
echoed the findings by Amnesty International, the Permanent
People’s Tribunal and UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial
executions Philip Alston on the military’s role in extrajudicial
killings and enforced disappearances of people suspected of
being New People’s Army sympathizers.
HRW blamed the deteriorating human rights
situation on a "weak" judiciary and law enforcement system and
the continued failure of the Arroyo government to find, try and
punish even one perpetrator of the political slays. "Although
the government has adopted numerous measures it claims will stop
extrajudicial killings and bring perpetrators to justice, at
this writing no member of the military has been convicted for
involvement in any case that occurred since 2001," the report
said.
HRW also scored President Arroyo’s issuance
of two administrative orders prohibiting military officials from
freely cooperating in investigations of human rights violations,
including the enforced disappearance of peasant activist Jonas
Burgos, and directing the Defense department to draft a bill to
prevent the "disclosure of military secrets and interference in
military operations inimical to national security."
HRW criticized the Arroyo government’s
blacklist of perceived enemies, saying 504 peaceful overseas
critics affiliated with progressive NGOs or who had visited the
Philippines on human rights fact-finding objectives have been
linked by the said blacklist to terrorist groups al Qaeda and
Taliban.
HRW said the Human Security Act of 2007
contains "an overly broad definition of terrorism, overly harsh
mandatory penalties applicable to even minor violations of the
law, and it provides for the indefinite detention of terrorism
suspects and rendition of persons to countries that routinely
commit torture."
The group said even Martin Scheinin, UN
special rapporteur on counter-terrorism and human rights, has
criticized the new law and has called for changes to ensure
respect for human rights. In a March 2007 paper, Scheinin
described the HSA’s definition of terrorism as "at variance with
the principle of legality" and "incompatible with Article 15 of
the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights." –
Anthony Ian Cruz
