What is happening to GMA case and Amal?

It may disappoint those who would like Amal’s engagement to George Clooney to come in the way of her concern for former president GMA’s case. She may be in the thick of preparing for her wedding in September somewhere in Italy, but part of her mind is also to continue extending her expertise on human rights to help the former president.

As previously written about in this column, Amal Alammudin works with the redoubtable Doughty Chambers, a formidable law firm in London that holds the human rights lawyer in esteem. And they continue to monitor the condition of Mrs. Arroyo.

Recently, some guests who visited her say she is fast deteriorating – she smiles and still has the spunk when she speaks – but doctors say that what is happening inside her no one can see. It is a known medical fact that depression can weaken the immune system faster than an illness. This is verified by scientific studies. No one really knows how long she will last under the difficult conditions of being confined in the Veterans Memorial Hospital. Family and friends visit her but when they all go and leave her alone, it is not surprising if the sadness can be so overwhelming. And all this she suffers even without a conviction. She is merely accused, surely it would be humane to allow her to leave so she can go to the hospital in New York that local doctors say is the only place with the facilities and the expertise to deal with her illness.

President Aquino was once heard to have said “let her die there.” But that is hearsay. More loud are the actions he has undertaken to make certain that happens. If she does die there he will have blood in his hands. Because of Hacienda Luisita? Or her refusal to kowtow to Cory Aquino for personal favors?

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So much for the President’s reasons for denying GMA’s human right to health and life.

Amal Alammudin and her colleagues in Doughty Chambers in London are not involved in Philippine politics. They are involved in human rights and how countries fulfill their obligations as signatories to international agreements. They, too, are working as best as they can to see justice done to the former Philippine president within that context. As Amal said in an interview, “even political enemies have human rights.”

 So yes is the answer to the question on what is now happening to Amal’s commitment to GMA to protect her human right to life. The cooperation to get at the facts continues between Doughty Chambers and GMA’s lawyers.

It must be remembered that the reach of the publicity this case will generate in the United Nations will be worldwide. It is already happening. It might be a coincidence that George Clooney of Hollywood and Amal Alammuddin of human rights have come together but it is a formidable combination.

A law against interfaith marriages

 We have just seen a sample of how they will respond to issues troubling the world. Recently they had a brush with a London tabloid on the issue of interfaith marriages. It might have touched a raw nerve because it was a personal attack. George Clooney immediately put on notice any misreporting or wrong information that a tabloid newspaper in London tried to put to the story.

 The Daily Mail printed a story that said Amal’s family are Druze, a sect in Islam and were therefore not too happy about the marriage. In the long friendship I have had with the family, religion has never come up in our conversations or confidences. The Alammudins are very private and tolerant so when the story came out, George and Amal quickly moved to put down the Daily Mail allegations.

Daily Mail said Amal’s mother was not too happy about the marriage because of religious differences. Clooney said the story is fabricated and he added that the article’s exploitation of religious differences is “at the very least negligent and more appropriately dangerous.”

George Clooney called it “the worst tabloid” and the couple both rejected not only the story but also the apology the tabloid extended after it was exposed as a “fabricated” story. Like other celebrities who have been similarly treated, George Clooney could just have ignored the story. But he came back at the tabloid which is a good omen.

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More important to watch is how the marriage of a famous couple representing human rights and Hollywood would impact on international issues troubling the world, interfaith marriages being one of them.

There are governments in the world today that are pushing to make it a law against men and women from different religions to marry.

According to Asia News the Burmese government is pushing for a law that would prohibit Buddhists from marrying Muslims. Indeed, it is only one of the measures being undertaken to annihilate the Rohingya Muslims. Activists and journalists in the region are fighting hard that it be known to the world.

“A movement rejects the reform proposal desired by Buddhist extremists and supported by the President. It limits the freedom of women and is written for reasons of ‘political interest’. Give priority to Constitutional reform and the peace process.” writes Francis Khoo Thwe in AsiaNews.

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“They are prodding the US government under the Obama administration to review its policies about the human rights violations of the ‘democratized’ Burmese government.

“The current political initiatives ‘based on religion,’ including the proposal for the amendment of the law on mixed marriages, are not in agreement with the goals of peaceful coexistence between all faiths.”

At the same time, they do not contribute to the fight against “extremist violence and conflict” but only serve to “distract the public in view of the 2015 elections.”

This is the claim of 97 Burmese groups of different ethnicity, religion, marital status and gender, but united in a common movement to counter the reform of the law on marriages favored by Burmese Buddhists and supported by President Thein Sein. In an official document of 11 points of criticism and seven new proposals, activists denounced an attempt to delay the process of “transition to democracy,” an obstacle to the peace process and amendments to the Constitution “demanded by the people of Myanmar,” AsiaNews added.