President Aquino failed to end impunity, say human rights groups

International rights monitors Amnesty International (AI) and Human Rights Watch (HRW) said President Benigno Aquino III had failed to deliver on his campaign pledge to end a culture of impunity.

The London-based AI said that with his lackluster record in protecting human rights after a year in office, the President should put up a special body that would handle extrajudicial killings, disappearances and torture.

The rights group proposed the establishment of the Presidential Accountability Commission to handle these pressing issues, and said Mr. Aquino could announce its creation during his State of the Nation Address later this month.

In a statement, AI-Philippines director Aurora Parong said the President “has shown that human rights are still not a priority for his administration.”

Elaine Pearson, HRW deputy director for Asia, issued a statement on Wednesday with a similar message.

Parong noted that Mr. Aquino had blamed his predecessor for human rights atrocities. “But after a full year in charge, it is time for him to take responsibility for protecting the human rights of Filipinos,” she said.

She added that the administration still did not have “a national action plan for human rights” even after a year, and that it should “start taking concerted action” against rights violations.

AI said Mr. Aquino had failed to establish accountability when it came to state security forces and paramilitary groups, to disband private armies and to ensure justice for victims of rights violations.

Not enough

Last month during the release of its annual report on the state of human rights in the world, AI said there had been minimal progress in attaining justice for victims and their families.

Parong had said that Mr. Aquino’s statements on human rights issues had not necessarily translated into action.

On Wednesday, the New-York-based HRW pronounced the Aquino administration wanting in protecting the people from rights violations.

Like AI, HRW said Mr Aquino did little in his first year to fulfill his campaign promise to bring justice to victims of rights violations and to dismantle private armies.

“President Aquino’s record during his first year in office shows that human rights have just not been his priority,” Pearson said. “He says he won’t tolerate killings and disappearances, but he needs to do a lot more to stop them.”

HRW said that while positive reforms had been instituted, there were not enough effective measures done to prosecute those responsible for grave violations committed by the military and the police.

It said extrajudicial killings and disappearances were continuing while investigations had gone nowhere despite strong evidence of military involvement.

Praise from AFP

But as Mr. Aquino marked the end of his first year in office Thursday, the military credited him for giving priority to its modernization and for emphasizing human rights and peace talks with insurgent groups.

A spokesperson for the Armed Forces of the Philippines also said Mr. Aquino had boosted soldiers’ morale with a mass housing program for 20,000 soldiers and policemen and the doubling of combat duty pay to P500 from P240.

“The AFP stands invigorated by the first year of the President’s leadership as our Commander in Chief. We are inspired by his commitment to upgrade our capability to protect our people and our country by providing P11 billion in just [one] year for the upgrade of equipment,” said Commodore Miguel Rodriguez, AFP deputy chief of staff for civil military operations.

“He directed the AFP’s efforts toward peace and development instead of combat, and placed emphasis on the peace process and the primacy of human rights,” Rodriguez said, referring to Bayanihan, the military’s new internal peace and security plan.

Rodriguez claimed that since Bayanihan took effect in January, “only one human rights violation had been alleged against the AFP.”

But the military is still hounded by unresolved disappearances and summary executions of political activists under Oplan Bantay Laya, the counterinsurgency program of the Arroyo administration.

Under Bayanihan, the AFP is upholding the need for a political settlement with the communist National Democratic Front and the secessionist Moro Islamic Liberation Front.