Dutch and Belgian Lawyers organizations were alarmed by the reports and statements of international and Filipino human rights organizations and various news items about the violence against members of the legal profession in the Philippines. Lawyers and judges are reportedly victims of serious harassment and intimidation while in the exercise of their profession or brutally killed.
At the invitation of the Philippine lawyers organization CODAL, the Dutch Lawyers for Lawyers Foundation organized at the initiative of the Dutch Foundation Lawyers without Borders an International Fact Finding Mission (IFFM) on the Attacks against Filipino Lawyers and Judges. Two Dutch judges and six Dutch and Belgian lawyers investigated the situation.
From 15-20 June, 2006, the IFFM held interviews and conferences in Quezon City, Manila and Tacloban City, Leyte, with lawyer-victims, the families of slain lawyers, the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, human rights advocates, concerned government agencies (Philippine Commission on Human Rights, Philippine National Police, Armed Forces of the Philippines, National Bureau of Investigation, Department of Justice, Department of the Interior and Local Government), members of the judiciary (Supreme Court) and legislators (Senate and House of Representatives). It also studied relevant documents, including those provided by the aforementioned individuals, agencies and organizations.
The IFFM observed that to this date, the Arroyo administration rejects national and international criticism on its human rights record, by simply referring to its democratic institutions and human rights treaties, laws and policies.
On paper, the Philippines is indeed a republic with democratic institutions including an elected President and separate executive, legislative and judicial branches. It has an independent Commission on Human Rights and respect for human rights principles are enshrined in its 1987 Constitution, laws and policies. The Philippines has also signed and ratified almost all relevant international human rights treaties, such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
Nevertheless, since 2001 not only 15 lawyers and 10 judges have been killed in the Philippines but also almost 700 other individuals including members of leftist groups, journalists, priests, church-workers, human rights defenders, laborers and farmers. All were unarmed citizens. None of the killers has been convicted.
Taking into account that all democratic institutions are formally in place, the IFFM considers the situation especially alarming. This makes it abundantly clear that either the constitutional state does not function properly or that there are powers undermining its proper functioning. Based upon its personal evaluation of the relevant documents and testimonies of individual cases, the IFFM has reached the following conclusions:
Human rights lawyers and judges in the Philippines are increasingly threatened, intimidated and killed as a consequence of which they encounter more and more difficulties in carrying out their legal profession.
The harassment and killings of members of the legal profession undermine the independence of judges and lawyers and, as a consequence, also the rule of law and the faith in (the function of) the judiciary system.
There is a pattern in the harassment and killings of human rights lawyers and judges, which must be seen in the light of other killings in the Philippines including the killings of members of leftist groups. Prior to the attacks, victims are usually labelled by the military as members or supporters of the CPP/NPA, communists or enemies of the state. The next step is that victims are threatened and usually be subjected to surveillance by the military. The way victims are killed is also similar. Almost all assassinations are shooting incidents with a hitand-run character conducted by a team of unidentified motorcycle-riding men. Even the most brutal atrocities hardly elicit any decisive action or condemnation from the government; and to this date, all cases have remained unsolved.
Many people believe that the state security forces are involved in the killings and these allegations are supported amongst others by the Philippine Commission on Human Rights, based upon its own investigations.
Although the primary duty of the Government is to protect the life of the people, including lawyers and judges, the Arroyo administration has hardly done anything to address the extrajudicial killings effectively. In particular it has neither responded seriously to strong allegations that its own security forces are involved in the killings nor has it taken effective measures to improve the poor record of prosecutions of the perpetrators.
Only recently, President Arroyo has ordered that these extrajudicial killings be thoroughly investigated and eventually be stopped. This order has led to the establishment of a special Task Force, known as Task Force USIG, which is supposed to primarily take charge of the over-all management of the investigations in these cases. So far, however, Task Force USIG has not proven to be an independent body: It is chaired by the PNP which has a poor record as far as the effective investigation of the killings is concerned and which is mistrusted by the Philippine people.
Furthermore, the Arroyo administration has not condemned the killings publicly and in strong terms.
This lack of an effective response of the Arroyo administration has led to a culture of impunity in which even more killings and human rights violations may take place. The IFFM notes that, up to this date, the killings continue unabated.
Consequently, this culture of impunity has further diminished the peoples faith in the functioning of the constitutional state and the system of law culminating in a climate in which, for instance, lawyers and judges consider it part of their job to be threatened and in which witnesses of killings do not cooperate with the police or the public prosecutor out of fear or because they find it a waste of time as it comes to nothing.
The Philippine government is under the obligation to take steps to ensure the compliance with human rights and the right to life in particular. In other to stop the killings, the threats and harassment of lawyers and judges, the IFFM calls on the government:
- to condemn the killings publicly and in strong terms;
- to immediately take vigorous steps to protect the safety of human rights lawyers and judges, which steps should include the prosecution of alleged perpetrators;
- to leave no stone unturned in investigating the serious allegations that its own security forces are involved in the killings;
- to constitute an independent body, i.e. not controlled by the government, to investigate the killings, threats and harassment and to follow its recommendations;
- to take all other measures needed to end the culture of impunity and to restore the peoples faith in the functioning of the constitutional state and the rule of law.
The full report can be downloaded at http://www.pinoyhr.net/reports/dutch_lflf.pdf
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About AHRC: The Asian Human Rights Commission is a regional non-governmental organisation monitoring and lobbying human rights issues in Asia. The Hong Kong-based group was founded in 1984.
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