MANILA, Philippines -- The government must ensure swift justice for the victims of the Maguindanao massacre as the gruesome incident has brought the Philippines back to the “dark age of condemnation at the international level” during martial law, one of the country's leading human rights experts said on Friday.

Dr. Purificacion Quisumbing, vice chairman of the United Nations Human Rights Advisory Committee, warned that the memory of the mass murder last November 23 would “stay” in the mind of the international community.

“The way it works internationally, is that we have entered an area of human rights in international community where we have never been,” Quisumbing said in an interview on ANC.

“The only time we almost entered what I will call the darkest stage of human rights condemnation at the international level was just before the fall of Marcos,” she said.

Quisumbing, former chairperson of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR), said that the Philippines was then “scrutinized for its bad human rights record” that the UN had almost considered appointing a permanent rapporteur to the country to specifically monitor the Marcos government's compliance with the international human rights treaties to which the Philippines was a signatory.

She said the 1986 People Power Revolution “saved” the country from that UN action.

But with Monday's slaughter of 57 people, including journalists, Quisumbing said: “This is the time when I think that we will be placed under that situation.”

“The international community will be watching how the government will prosecute the incident,” she added.

She said the Arroyo government must be able to deliver justice swiftly for the victims as it has already built a reputation of dragging its feet on the prosecution of human rights cases.

While Justice Secretary Agnes Devanadera has said that the case will be “resolved in 36 hours," Quisumbing said the Cabinet official was likely referring to the filing of proper charges against the suspects.

“But that's not justice. That's not a solution... It's only when you render justice to the victims under our criminal justice system that you finally solve the case. When that does not happen, the international community is looking. There are many cases stuck at the DOJ (Department of Justice),” Quisumbing said.

She said that as far as the international community was concerned, there had not been any human rights case in the country where justice was rendered “in a timely fashion,"

The government could appeal to the judiciary to fast track the prosecution of the case, Quisumbing said, noting how a special court was convened for the plunder trial of deposed President Joseph Estrada.

“This is an opportunity for us to redeem ourselves as a state where human rights is in the midst of national policies,” she said.

But for Quisumbing, the government appears to be moving slowly in resolving the Maguindanao massacre.

“Everything seems to be done very slowly and this is not a situation where slow and sure is the right way to go,” she said.

Quisumbing warned the government of a perception in the international community and among human rights advocates that “everything is too slow all in the name of due process.”

“Due process does not mean unnecessary delay... From the human rights point of view, can we give it some speed? That's more my concern, looking [at it from the] point of view of victims looking for justice,” Quisumbing said.