MANILA, Philippines?Angered by a bill in the United States Congress seeking to strip the Philippines of $2 million in US military assistance due purportedly to the country?s dismal human rights record, Sen. Joker Arroyo wants the issue taken up by Filipino officials during the two-day visit to Manila this week of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

?We should ask her (Clinton) directly, why is it that you?re removing the military assistance that is not even a big amount?because you say that the Philippines is a human rights violator,? Arroyo said in an interview over dzBB radio.

Arroyo said America had a worse human rights record than the Philippines.

?If you look at yourselves in the mirror, you will see that you are even a worse violator, because it?s a state policy sanctioned by the (US) government,? he said.

Arroyo said that in the case of the Philippines, it was possible that human rights violations were being committed by members of the military and the police but this was not a state policy.

Clinton is due in the country on Friday. She has said that her visit had to do with America showing its solidarity with Filipinos who were badly battered by recent calamities.

Guantanamo Bay

Arroyo pointed out that the US government maintained a detention facility for foreign detainees in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The senator said the detention facility was built outside the US ?so that they can torture and keep prisoners? there and US laws did not apply there.

And even if US President Barack Obama wanted Guantanamo Bay to be shut down, Arroyo said this could not be done because the US military opposed such a move.

Noting that he had been in the human rights movement for a long time now, Arroyo said the US had no right to criticize the Philippines.

?Other countries can lecture us, not the Americans,? he said.

In contrast to Arroyo?s stance, human rights groups are lobbying against the release of US military aid until cases of human rights abuses in the country are resolved.

Other side of coin

Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Teodoro Casiño said in Baguio City on Saturday that aside from military aid, rights groups also called on the US government to stop releasing official development assistance.

Casiño said they hoped Raymond Richhart, deputy director of the US state department?s Office of Maritime Southeast Asian Affairs, would honor his word that US military aid would not be released until the issue on human rights abuses in the country was resolved.

Casiño said they had yet to receive an official statement from the state department stipulating the non-release of the aid.

?But there is no need for a black and white; we take the information at face value. The information was from an official who was knowledgeable of the US Congress. The fact that the aid was withheld, it should send a message to the government that it should address the rights abuses in the country,? he said.

American legislators have expressed concern about persistent reports of human rights violations by the Philippine military and police.

At Fort Del Pilar, Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro said there was no need for the government to lobby to get the aid.

?They know us?

?We don?t need to lobby. The US government knows our engagement. We work closely with the US Armed Forces? They judge our performance, they know our performance,? he said in a press forum on Saturday.

Teodoro, who was a guest at the 111th foundation anniversary of the Philippine Military Academy, said US military aid had different aspects, one of which was for military capacity-building and another for counterterrorism efforts.

For more than a month, the military had been engaged in humanitarian work, particularly in relief and rehabilitation efforts in areas hit by recent calamities.