It’s just one more promise unfulfilled by President Noynoy
Aquino, two years after he assumed office. But Aquino’s failure to arrest and
prosecute even one suspected human rights violator for incidents that took
place during his term is really getting to be embarrassing.
DO READ PLEASE FOR ADDITIONAL INFO:
WORLD REPORT 2012 –AQUINO ADMINISTRATION
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World Report 2012: Philippines
The Philippines is a multiparty democracy with an elected
president and legislature, a thriving civil society sector, and a vibrant
media. Several key institutions, including the judiciary and law enforcement
agencies, remain WEAK and the military and police STILLcommit human rights
violations with impunity. Armed opposition forces, including the communist New
People’s Army (NPA) and various Islamist Moro groups, also commit abuses
against civilians.
*****A.) Extrajudicial Killings and Enforced Disappearances
Hundreds of leftist politicians and political activists,
journalists, and outspoken clergy have been killed or abducted .The government
has largely failed to prosecute military personnel implicated in such killings,
even though strong evidence exists in many cases. Only seven cases of
extrajudicial killings from the past decade have been successfully prosecuted,
none of which were in 2011 or involved active duty military personnel.Politically
motivated killings have continued despite President Aquino’s pledges to address
the problem. Human Rights Watch has documented at least seven extrajudicial
killings and three enforced disappearances for which there is strong evidence
of military involvement since Aquino took office in June 2010.
*****B.)Private Armies
Aquino campaigned on promises to dismantle the “private
armies” of politicians and wealthy landowners, which have long been responsible
for serious abuses. 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. In October Aquino announced the
deployment of additional paramilitary personnel to provide security to mining
companies.
The trial of senior members of the Ampatuan family for the
November 23, 2009 massacre of 58 political opponents and others, including more
than 30 media workers, in Maguindanao in Mindanao, is ongoing.
***** C.)Torture
The police and the military were implicated in numerous
incidents of torture in 2011. While several investigations are ongoing, the
rigor of investigations varies and at this writing no one had been convicted
under the 2009 Anti-Torture Act.
In September the Department of Justice filed charges of
torture against a Manila precinct chief, Senior Inspector Joselito Binayug, and
six others, including one of his superiors, after a cell phone video was
circulated in March 2010 showing Binayug pulling on a rope tied around a
criminal suspect’s genitals and beating him during the interrogation. The
whereabouts of the victim, Darius Evangelista, remain unknown.
On July 23 in Sumisip, Basilan army scout rangers arrested
39-year-old baker Abdul-Khan Balinting Ajid as an alleged member of the Abu
Sayyaf armed group. Soldiers allegedly stripped him naked, sexually assaulted
him, and set him on fire. While the military said several soldiers involved had
been relocated to Manila, the capital, and restricted to barracks, at this
writing no criminal charges had been filed against them.
*****D.)Targeted Killings of Petty Criminals and Street
Youths
So-called death squads operating in Davao City, Tagum City,
and other cities continue to target alleged petty criminals, drug dealers, gang
members, and street children. Aquino’s administration has not acted to
dismantle such groups, end local anti-crime campaigns that promote or encourage
unlawful use of force, or prosecute government officials complicit in such
activities. At this writing the National Commission on Human Rights had still
not reported on the outcome of multi-agency task force investigations into
summary killings in Davao City in 2009.
*****E.)Conflict in Mindanao
A ceasefire remains in place between the Philippine
government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, and peace talks are ongoing.
The army continues to fight Abu Sayyaf, an armed group implicated in numerous
attacks on and abductions of civilians, particularly in Sulu and Basilan.
***** F.)Conflict with the New People’s Army
Military clashes continue between government forces and the
NPA, especially in the Eastern Visayas, Negros, and parts of Mindanao.
The 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.”
The Philippine army fabricated stories that several children
taken into military custody were NPA rebels. In several cases investigated by
Human Rights Watch, the army paraded the children in front of the media,
publicly branding them rebels despite conclusive contrary evidence. In two of
the cases, the army detained the children for several days.
The UN Children’s Fund has documented the use of children in
armed conflict by the NPA and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, as well as by
government forces. The UN has reported a rising trend of government security
forces using schools as barracks and bases in contravention of national
legislation prohibiting such practice.
*****G.)Reproductive
Rights
Contraceptives, including condoms, are restricted in parts
of the Philippines, which prohibits and criminally punishes abortion without
exception. The law leaves open the possibility that a serious threat to a
pregnant woman's life could be classified as a justifying circumstance barring
criminal prosecution. However, the Philippine Supreme Court has yet to
adjudicate this possibility, which does little to mitigate the serious
consequences of criminalizing abortion for women's health and lives.
Despite vehement opposition from the Catholic Bishops’
Conference of the Philippines, Aquino has remained publicly committed to a
reproductive health bill that aims to provide universal access to contraception
and maternal health care. The bill goes some way toward enhancing protection of
sexual and reproductive rights and the right to the highest obtainable standard
of health, but still makes abortion a criminal offense. At this writing it
remained before Congress.
***** H.)Philippine Workers Abroad
Approximately two million Filipinos work abroad, and in the
first nine months of 2011 sent home an estimated US$13 billion. Hundreds of
thousands of women work in Southeast Asia and the Middle East as domestic
workers, where they are typically excluded from labor laws and are often
subject to abuses including unpaid wages, food deprivation, forced confinement
in the workplace, and physical and sexual abuse. In 2011 the Philippine
government either proposed or implemented bans on sending workers to countries
with high incidences of abuse. These bans have largely been ineffective, with
host countries turning to other labor sources instead. The Philippines has yet
to extend labor protections to household workers domestically, but played a key
role globally by chairing negotiations for the International Labour
Organization Convention on Decent Work for Domestic Workers, adopted on June
16, 2011.
***** I.)Key International Actors
