Chief Justice chides pols for ignoring rights issues
Chief Justice Reynato Puno lashed out at politicians yesterday for not championing the issue of human rights and for preferring high profile issues to human rights cases.
He also called on the public not to lose focus on the unexplained killings and forced disappearances as he opened a two-day summit that aims to craft solutions to the issues.
“If there are compelling reasons for this summit, one of them is to prevent losing eye contact with these killings and disappearances, revive our righteous indignation, and spur our united search for the elusive solution to this festering problem,” he said.
“At this moment, we may not know how to solve this problem, but we do know that the sure way to lose its solution is to be immobilized by doubt, to be terrorized by the thought that any effort to lick the problem will no more than amount to an effort to square the circle,” he added.
According to Puno, many Filipinos appear to have their concern over the incidents of killings and disappearances already “interred by time.”
“Their sense of shock has been anesthetized by the escalation of the killings and disappearances despite the size of the space given to them by the print media,” he said.
As he opened the National Consultative Summit on Extrajudicial Killing and Enforced Disappearances at the Manila Hotel, Puno also chided elected officials for not championing the issue of human rights.
“Elected officials usually go for what is popular but the vindication of human rights sometimes demands taking unpopular decisions, especially in instances where, due to technicalities, the right of the righteous is trumped by the rights of the wicked.
“Likewise, elected officials sometimes demur in making decisions that will displease their powerful constituencies. Such a tilted stance cannot be taken by protectors of human rights who must, at all times, maintain an even keel on the rights of the opposites,” he said.
Puno attacked elected politicians on the issue of high profile cases that seem to attract their interest rather than the sensitive issues of unexplained killings and disappearances.
“Also, it is the findings that elected officials are sometimes more interested in high profile issues or those with great impact on the larger number of their constituents. Oftentimes, however, human rights cases are low profile especially when they affect the marginalized, or people whose existence some would hardly recognize or worse, people dismissed as the invisibles of society,” Puno added.
During the summit’s first day yesterday, representatives of various sectors presented their respective position papers on the issue of unexplained killings and forced disappearances.
Those who presented their papers were retired Supreme Court justice Jose Melo, chair of the defunct Melo Commission; Commission on Human Right chair Purificacion Quisumbing; Nilda Sevilla of the Families of Victims of Involuntary Disappearance; Edelina dela Paz of Karapatan and Luis Teodoro, deputy director of the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility, representing the media sector.
Also presenting their papers were the Armed Forces of the
Desaparecido bill
Meanwhile, a human rights group urged President Arroyo to prioritize the enactment of a pending bill that seeks to define forced or involuntary disappearance as a criminal offense.
Nilda Sevilla, chair of the Families of Victims of Involuntary Disappearance, yesterday revealed that House Bill 326 or the “Anti-Enforced or Involuntary Disappearance Act of 2007” has yet to be certified as a priority bill by Mrs. Arroyo.
“We strongly recommend that the government should officially and strongly condemn enforced disappearances and make police, military and other security forces understand that government will not condone their commission under any circumstance,” Sevilla said.
Sevilla, sister of labor and human rights lawyer Hermon Lagman who still remains missing, added that there is no law penalizing enforced disappearances, which the United Nations has defined as state-enforced, with the aim of concealing the whereabouts of a person perceived to be an enemy of the state to evade accountability.
Sevilla added that unlike kidnapping, involuntary disappearance has yet to be defined as a crime.
Under HB 326, “enforced disappearances” take on the UN’s definition of involuntary disappearances that limits the direct and indirect commission of the crime to State authorities.
The proposed bill further considers disappearance as a continuing offense as long as the fate and whereabouts of the person have not been determined with certainty; and mandates the expeditious disposition of a habeas corpus proceeding and immediate compliance with any release order by virtue of such proceeding.
According to the statistics of the militant group Karapatan, the victims of unexplained killings and abductions as of
This year alone recorded a total of 46 killings, 10 of which come from the Bicol region, seven from Region 4, six from
Armed Forces chief of staff Gen. Hermogenes Esperon Jr., who also spoke before yesterday’s summit, brushed aside allegations by cause-oriented groups that the military was behind the killings and disappearances of political activists.
“I must reiterate that the AFP will not deliberately engage in such activities. We shall not stifle cause-oriented groups. The ‘enemies of the state’ are those who subscribe to violence and violate state sovereignty in not renouncing their armed struggle,” he said.
Esperon added that the Communist Party of the
Esperon also pointed out that CPP founder Jose Maria Sison himself identified which militant groups are fronts of the communist movement. – Paolo Romero
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