Ending the culture of impunity

THE start of the Chinese New Year didn’t bode well for the Aquino administration. Well, at least as far as its human rights record is concerned. In its World Report 2012, the New York-based Human Rights Watch called President Aquino to task saying that “despite promises of reform, his administration has made little progress in addressing impunity. Extrajudicial killings of leftist activists and petty criminals continue, with the government failing to acknowledge and address involvement by the security forces and local officials.”

To be fair, the report says it’s not only the military and police who commit abuses against civilians but also armed opposition forces, including the communist New People’s Army (NPA) and various Islamist Moro groups. In fact, the report states that “(t)he NPA has unlawfully killed and detained civilians and extorted “taxes” from individuals and businesses. NPA leaders have often sought to justify targeted killings by noting that “people’s courts” earlier condemned those killed for “crimes against the people.” For instance, the NPA killed Raymundo Agaze in Kabankalan City, Negros Occidental on August 19, and Ramelito Gonzaga in Mindanao on September 2 following “people’s court” rulings. Philip Alston, former United Nations special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, concluded that the NPA’S court system “is either deeply flawed or simply a sham.”

But, of course, it is the abuses committed by government forces that people are most concerned with because it is this armed group that carries with it the martial powers of government and therefore, with the most potential for abuse. And when they’re unleashed in conflict areas, it is the unarmed and hapless villager who – literally and figuratively – gets caught in the crossfire, regardless of who fires the first shot. Since these security forces bear the imprimatur of government, letting human rights abuses by these professional warriors go unpunished is likened to statesanctioned terrorism.

It’s not as if the government doesn’t have the resources to curb these human rights abuses. Of the US$ 12 million given by the United States government as military aid to the Philippines in 2011, US$3 million was earmarked to address human rights violations. That’s about 135 million pesos at US$45:P1. The European Union also poured in 3.9 million euros or 5.1 million dollars in a program to address extrajudicial killings. So what have we got to show for it? Not much, apparently.

As of this writing, more than 140 journalists and media workers have been victims of extrajudicial killings that included the infamous Ampatuan massacre in 2009. According to the human rights group, Karapatan, there were roughly 1,000 political killings in the previous administration alone. Although President Aquino made a campaign promise to end political killings, a US State Department report confirmed that such killings are still taking place under his watch.

The World Report 2012 puts it more boldly: “While Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo has claimed the Aquino administration has dismantled almost half of the private armies in the southern island of Mindanao, he has not presented any evidence. Promises to revoke Executive Order 546, which local officials cite to justify the provision of arms to their personal forces, also have not come to fruition. Aquino still defends the use of poorly trained and abusive paramilitary forces to fight NPA insurgents and Islamist armed groups.” And despite the passage of an Anti- Torture Act more than two years ago, no one has been convicted under that law.

The government’s anemic ef- forts at addressing human rights violations have not gone unnoticed by other human rights groups. In its Submission to the United Nations Universal Periodic Review (May-june 2012) on Impunity for Torture, Unlawful Killings and Enforced Disappearances, Amnesty International said: “In November 2009, after the Maguindanao massacre, President Aquino (then a senator) issued a statement demanding the immediate revocation of Executive Order No. 546, vowing to “never again [use] public funds to support and maintain a private security force”. Two years later, however, he announced that he no longer intended to revoke it, and instead would “professionalize” the militias. The military leadership has also been quoted by media as saying that they want to recruit more of such forces. As of early 2011, there were reportedly 50,000 members of such statesponsored militias, in addition to an estimated 120,000 soldiers in active service.”

Clearly, the Aquino administration needs political will more than rhetoric to put an end to human rights abuses and extrajudicial killings. And there’s no better time to finish the job than now, during the term of President Aquino, whose own father, Ninoy – a revered Filipino martyr – is the country’s most prominent victim of a political killing. wealth. The elite particularly those who thrive under corruption and patronage politics are afraid of Ronald Llamas, much more the politics and the class he represents. He is not just an outsider, he is an anomaly. He is not just an anomaly or a stubborn irregularity that must be removed; he is a representative of the “wretched and unwashed masses” who for the longest time have been marginalized and unrepresented in the affairs of the state.

I trust the Filipino masses will see the real score behind this issue and will not be hoodwinked by those who want Ronald Llamas out. We will not give them that satisfaction. We now have a new government. The masses and their representatives are here to stay. — Danilo Lim