Elect leader that will end culture of impunity - UP panel

On a sunny Saturday morning in February, military and police agents raided the rest house of a retired doctor in Morong, Rizal and arrested 43 health workers for alleged links to communist rebels. Blindfolded and handcuffed for 36 hours, the detainees are the latest in a long list of civilians that are complaining of human rights violations in the hands of law enforcers. A defective warrant, mental torture, and the military’s delay in complying with a court order to produce what human rights advocates have dubbed as the “Morong 43" add up to a “grandslam day for impunity," Bayan Muna party-list representative Satur Ocampo said. Commission on Human Rights (CHR) chairperson Leila De Lima agreed, saying “Irrespective of who they are, alleged (New People’s Army rebels) or not, they all have human rights. No one deserves to be treated inhumanely."
A day before the arrest, last Feb. 5, the topic of impunity was discussed at the University of the Philippines (UP) Academic Congress to Challenge Our Next Leaders. Professor Ibarra M. Gutierrez III, moderator and panelist of the forum on impunity, called for new leaders that will make human rights violators criminally liable for their actions. “The only thing we can rely on in order to ensure that there will be prosecution and there will be an end to impunity is voting into office a leadership which will take the entire issue seriously, not just to the extent of formally embracing human rights principles, but more importantly, using them to enforce criminal liability," he said. During the forum, a high-profile panel of UP professors explained the causes and proposed measures that could put an end to the penchant of law enforcers to continue committing human rights violations because they know they can get away with it. No reward for upholding human rights

Gutierrez said CHR data shows that members of the Philippine National Police and the Armed Forces of the Philippines top the list of alleged perpetrators of human rights violations. “I suppose we can start calling them criminals," he said, pointing out the irony that most of the reported human rights violators are law enforcers. He attributed the trend to the “essential contradiction" between military and police instruction in general and the human rights aspect of their training, citing a study done by the CHR and the Development Academy of the Philippines. Gutierrez said the respondents in the study displayed the mindset that when conducting operations, their personal role was subsumed under the collective responsibility of the military or police establishment. “They might commit the most heinous atrocities in the course of military or police operations, but individually they don’t think that they’re actually guilty of anything," he said. “They commit as a group so no single person is forced to shoulder the weight of the entire crime. To a certain extent, that justifies or makes the burden easier to bear." Another problem is that most law enforcers do not find it beneficial to uphold human rights. “They do it and there’s no reward," he said. Conversely, one soldier said the success of military operations was measured in terms of body count. “The more the people you actually killed, the better the operation you have and the better your chances of promotion," said Gutierrez. Paper victory Records from the Ombudsman also show that human rights violators often go unpunished. Out of the estimated 300 to 700 summary executions allegedly done by state security forces in the last six years under President Arroyo’s administration, less than 100 cases have been filed at the Ombudsman and none in court, he noted. “So far our track record in enforcing liability for violations on human rights has not been good," the professor said. One of the weaknesses in the system is that the CHR is limited to the investigation of human rights cases and does not have the power to initiate prosecution, he said. The commission can only transmit the results to the Department of Justice, where the prosecutor is not required to accept the findings of the CHR. “What they will do most probably is conduct, again, their own investigation of the subject matter, which may in fact lead to completely setting aside the findings of the CHR," he said. “While you may have some kind of paper victory on the level of the commission, which is in fact the principal agency mandated to conduct the investigation in these kinds of violations, it does not automatically mean that there will be some kind of accountability arising from prosecution filed before the DOJ," said Gutierrez. “Orgy for lawyers" One reason for the prevalence of impunity in Philippine society is that the 1987 Constitution has provided a framework for it, a legal expert said. Post-People Power, the enterprise of legalizing and qualifying human rights was like an “orgy for lawyers," according to Dean Pangalangan. Dean of the College of Law Raul C. Pangalangan “We said we shall write everything into the constitution - civil and political rights, economic rights. We ratify all the treaties. We institute all these safeguards, and create watchdog agencies," he recalled. “We have all these mechanisms, we intend mechanisms to deal with the problem, and they keep on not working," said Pangalangan. Extrajudicial killings stand out among the cases which exemplify the failure of this legal framework. “Though hundreds of people have been killed, the government hasn’t done anything," said Pangalangan, citing the Alston Report which described the government as being in a state of “almost total denial, passivity bordering on abdication of duty." Command responsibility for human rights crimes Rep. Lorenzo R. Tañada III, chairman of the Committee on Human Rights, said Congress has passed legislation that promotes human rights, but like most other Philippine laws, they seem to be more of a suggestion than a rule. One of these is the Anti-Torture Act of 2009 which was signed into law last November, just before the infamous massacre of 57 civilians and journalists in Maguindanao. Another is the International Humanitarian Law that was signed on December 11, 2009. Tañada said this law is particularly important because of the long existing armed conflict between the government and rebel forces that has affected innocent civilians. “It provides for criminal and administrative liability of commanders and other superiors under the principles of command responsibility," said Tañada. “Among others we hope that this law will help protect civilians and non-combatants, specially women and children against violation of human rights whether by the military or private entities," he said. Tañada cited the case of the Dumagat indigenous community in Aurora province, which is using the law as a test case in a torture complaint against the military. However, he acknowledged that tougher laws need to be passed in order to end the culture of impunity. “The Congress did its work, although it did not pass all that was needed," said Tañada. – YA, GMANews.TV