Bayan Muna slams Ermita report to UN rights body
By TJ Burgonio
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 21:33:00 04/12/2008
MANILA, Philippines -- Bayan Muna (People First) Representative Teodoro Casiño said Saturday he "nearly fell'' off his seat when he heard Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita deliver a "one-sided'' report on the country's human rights situation before a United Nations body in Geneva.
After Ermita read out the Philippine National Report on the rights situation before the UN Human Rights Council last Friday, 16 countries expressed concern over the rights situation in the Philippines, Casiño said in a report he e-mailed to the media in Manila from Geneva.
Casiño, who took part in UNHRC's Universal Periodic Review as an observer, described the Arroyo government’s report as self-serving, selective and "totally one-sided depiction'' of the human rights situation back home.
As a whole, the report was designed to portray the Arroyo administration as a "vanguard defender'' of human rights and good governance in the country, he said.
"I was particularly flabbergasted to hear Secretary Ermita boast of the government's superlative gains in fighting graft and corruption in the Philippines,'' Casiño said.
Even more incredible was the government's claim that it was it implementing anti-corruption measures, including strengthening the Ombudsman's investigation and prosecution powers, holding continuous trials in anti-graft courts, and installing electronic case management and information systems, the lawmaker said.
"I almost fell from my seat listening to him expound on government efforts to strengthen the Ombudsman and Sandiganbayan, the success of its electronic procurement system, and effectivity of its lifestyle checks,'' he said.
Casiño had earlier vowed to lobby the UN to strip the Philippines of its membership in the UNHRC in view of the fresh cases of extra-judicial killings and enforced disappearances this year.
"Fortunately, not all countries took this line hook and sinker,'' Casiño said of Ermita’s report.
At least 16 countries, including the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, expressed concern on the extra-judicial killings and enforced disappearances, he said.
"In typical diplomatic language used in the UN, (they) practically told the Philippines it was not doing enough on the matter, especially with regards to the recommendations of UN Special Rapporteur on Extra-judicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions Philip Alston,'' Casiño said.
In a final report on the rights situation late last year, Alston concluded that the military killed leftist activists as part of a campaign against communist rebels.
He had recommended that extra-judicial executions should be eliminated from counterinsurgency operations, command responsibility must be enforced to prosecute military officers, military practice of linking groups to rebels must be stopped, among others.
The international community also aired concern over violations of the rights of Filipino migrant workers, women, and children, according to Casiño.
"In other words, the Philippine government's attempt to downplay the killings and disappearances and project the image that the situation was improving did not wash,'' he said.
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