MALAYA: AFP, PNP still in denial over HR violations, says Human Rights Watch

By ANTHONY IAN CRUZ
Malaya
February 6, 2008

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.”