Issue
Analysis No. 24
November 4, 2006
This
is a country where seeking justice leads to further injustice, where
the culture of impunity is aggravated by a culture of fear and defenselessness,
where a corrupt and lawless government in all its brazenness invokes
the “rule of law” to justify assaults on democratic
rights and civil liberties.
HUMAN
RIGHTS AND THE
QUEST FOR JUSTICE
Arroyo faces trial for war crimes in The Hague
Families
of the victims of extra-judicial executions and other crimes filed
Oct. 30 charges of systematic and gross human rights violations
against President Gloria M. Arroyo before the Permanent People’s
Tribunal (PPT) in Den Haag, The Netherlands. The unprecedented move
indicates two major trends in the human rights struggle in the Philippines.
One is that the country’s legal system has lost all its credibility
forcing victims of political persecution to seek justice through
other legal mechanisms accessible in the international community.
The other is that the struggle for human rights, which was born
during the Marcos dictatorship, has once again been cast into the
global limelight as part of the people’s overall struggle
for comprehensive social and political reform.
Mrs.
Arroyo, along with the Bush government, the International Monetary
Fund-World Bank-World Trade Organization (IMF-WB-WTO), was charged
with gross and systematic violations of civil and political rights
(extra-judicial killings, abduction and disappearances, massacres,
torture, etc); gross and systematic violations of economic, social
and cultural rights; and gross and systematic violations of the
right to national self-determination and liberation. The PPT will
hold the trial in March 2007.
The
Hague, incidentally, is also the seat of the International Criminal
Court (ICC), the International Criminal Court for the Former Yugoslavia
(ICTFY) and the United Nations’ International Court of Justice
(ICJ). War criminals including former heads of state and erring
generals have been hailed to these courts for trial.
The
complaints were filed by Hustisya, the organization of families
of victims of politically-motivated crimes under the Arroyo administration;
SELDA and other groups during the PPT’s Second Session on
the Philippines. The second session is being held in response to
an urgent appeal from the victims of violations of human rights
and people's rights seeking justice and redress.
President
George W. Bush, Jr. is also a subject of the indictment for supporting
Arroyo’s counter-insurgency-terrorism through military aid
and training, among others. The support, as alleged in the indictment,
has led to the escalation of the political persecution of persons
and groups – tagged as “enemies of the state”
– that have called for the removal of Mrs. Arroyo from the
presidency, among others.
Mrs.
Arroyo is the second Philippine president to be indicted before
the PPT. In 1980, then President Ferdinand Marcos, together with
the U.S. government and other co-conspirators, was found guilty
for violations of people’s rights, human rights and crimes
under international law.
Melo Commission
Based
on the latest news accounts, no relative of victims of human rights
violations has approached the Melo Commission, the fact-finding
body formed by the President on Aug. 21 to investigate the killings
and forced disappearances of activists since 2001. The commission,
headed by a former associate justice of the Supreme Court (SC),
has been widely criticized as just a panel without any legal teeth
and whose only function is to clear Mrs. Arroyo of any responsibility
in the alleged crimes.
Using
her political clout in Congress, the President has also thrown out
two impeachment complaints – in 2005 and this year –
which include charges of human rights violations. By junking the
impeachment complaints, Mrs. Arroyo closed the doors to the public
clamor for her to tell the truth and what she knows about the 2004
electoral fraud and her role in the extra-judicial killings. To
date, there have been 764 victims of extra-judicial executions and
186 victims of forced disappearances.
In
seeking justice before an international court, any victim of human
rights violations should have exhausted all available legal remedies
in his or her own country. Indeed, lawyers and rights watchdogs
attest to the fact that in many cases government’s investigative
bodies, including the national police and National Bureau of Investigation
(NBI), have either done no serious investigation or were seen to
be covering up for the alleged perpetrators, widely believed to
be military, paramilitary and, in some cases, police forces. The
Philippine National Police’s (PNP) Task Force Usig, which
was tasked to investigate the killings, lacks credibility for two
reasons: first, its own investigation was based mainly on media
reports, which normally cannot stand in court; and second, it has
consistently shown a prejudgment that the killings are part of the
Left’s internal purge.
Families
of the victims have stopped filing complaints with the Department
of Justice (DoJ) because of precedents where, despite preponderant
evidences and testimonies, initial charges had been summarily dismissed.
The DoJ itself is sitting on about 400 cases already submitted by
the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) for prosecution. The department
has shown it cannot be relied upon to prosecute the alleged perpetrators
of the killings with the justice secretary himself perfunctorily
dismissing the incidents of human rights violations as a mere “collateral
damage” of government’s counter-insurgency program.
There
are doubts that the country’s entire judicial system can give
legal relief let alone a fair trial for a rebel, political dissenter
or activist. Marcos-vintage PDs including recent SC rulings uphold
warrantless arrests and criminalize political offenses. It would
be a naiveté to expect judges to know the rudiments and nuances
of international law and other human rights instruments –
which are supposed to be part of the law of the country –
as to enable them to rule on alleged political offenses based on
such instruments.
Except
for partisan political purposes, the Congress – through its
Commission on Appointments (CA) – does not seriously scrutinize
cabinet appointees including generals deemed unfit for their positions
in accordance with its check-and-balance constitutional role. One
proof is the case of Jovito Palparan, tagged as the “butcher”
of activists, whose successive promotions including the rank of
major general passed the CA. Likewise, Congress should be cited
for earmarking fat budgets to the Armed Forces of the Philippines
(AFP) despite its poor human rights record. Thus Congress has reneged
on its responsibility to ensure that executive policies and other
fiats are consistent with the people’s democratic interest
and that their right to dissent is adequately protected.
Further injustice
This
is a country where seeking justice leads to further injustice, where
the culture of impunity is aggravated by a culture of fear and defenselessness,
where a corrupt and lawless government in all its brazenness invokes
the “rule of law” to justify assaults on democratic
rights and civil liberties.
Given
the current circumstances, the quest for justice has been raised
to the international forum that remains open to the families of
victims of political murders in the Philippines. There is no mistaking
about the criticalness of this effort given the logistics and other
resources that should be mustered in bringing the case before the
international community.
Before
the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) last September,
people’s organizations filed on behalf of the victims of political
persecution complaints of human rights violations against Mrs. Arroyo.
In dealing with the complaints, the Council through its appropriate
committees is expected to investigate the alleged crimes and determine
whether the Philippine government has failed to comply with its
obligations to international laws, conventions and other instruments.
Non-compliance with international law particularly the convention
of human, civil and political rights and other instruments can lead
to the forfeiture of the Arroyo government’s seat in the 47-member
UNHRC.
On
the other hand, the PPT is composed of eminent persons and jurors
from all over the world. Although it is not a judicial body with
a power to punish, the prestigious PPT is a forum where a conviction
can help mobilize a strong international condemnation and even pressure
against those found guilty. This act can serve as a signal to world
institutions that the quest for justice by victims of human rights
violations in the Philippines is the responsibility of the international
community as well. This can serve further as political ammunition
in the continuing struggle in the Philippines for the removal of
a discredited and repressive administration. In the end, all these
can only imply that the struggle for human rights can serve the
goals of political reform, such as changing a government, however
short-term this may be.
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