US bid to cut aid to RP a human rights wake up call -- Jinggoy

INSTEAD of downplaying reports that the United States would slash its aid to the Philippines' military and police allegedly in light of extrajudicial killings and abductions in the country, Malacañang should see this development as a wake-up call to improve its human rights performance, Senate President Pro Tempore Jinggoy Ejercito Estrada said yesterday.

"Even if the planned cut in the assistance to the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police is said to be still in the form of a request and has not yet been actually approved and implemented, the fact that the US State Department has moved for such cut should already be a wake-up call to Malacañang to undertake positive steps toward human rights protection," Estrada said.

The Department is reportedly requesting US Congress to cut aid to the AFP, specifically, on the Foreign Military Financing (FMF) for procurement of military equipment from U.S., from nearly $30 million last year to only $11 million in fiscal year 2008 starting this September; and, on the International Military Exchange Training (IMET) program for sending and training AFP officers in the U.S., from $2.9 million to $1.5 million. Reportedly included in the request is on the International Narcotics Control and Law Enforcement (INCLE) assistance program to the PNP, from almost $2 million to $1.1 million for the same period.

US State Department Secretary Condoleeza Rice was said to have personally approved the revised figures for the US ' $26 billion assistance to more than 120 countries. Rice has reportedly set five key criteria to prioritize allocation of the aid, by which recipient countries are evaluated on the basis of their contributions to building peace and security; governing justly and democratically; and reducing widespread poverty, among others.

The request for the aid cut was seen as a response to charges of human rights abuses allegedly committed by members of the PNP and the AFP against activists, militant church and NGO members and journalists, as revealed last March to the US Senate by a panel led by Philippine church leaders and human rights activists.

Also, the US Senate appropriations committee has been noted to have inserted specific language in the foreign aid bill that forbids U.S. military assistance to be used against civilians, as it directed Secretary Rice to monitor the use of this aid to ensure it is not "misused by units of the security forces against civilians who are members of political opposition parties and human rights groups".

"From all indications, the US State Department's request for the aid cut was due to persistent reports of human rights abuses in our country. I would not be surprised if the abduction of activist Jonas Burgos was in fact included in the issues considered by the Department in deciding to request for the aid cut," Estrada said.

Estrada earlier filed a resolution to conduct a Senate inquiry into the alleged involvement of military officials in the abduction of Burgos.

In the same resolution, Estrada also sought to find out why Malacanang has failed, or refused, to endorse a United Nations convention on forced disappearances to the Senate for ratification.

He also authored three (3) bills to improve the human rights situation in the country, namely: the Magna Carta for Journalists, the creation of a Commission for Missing Persons, and, the imposition of heavy penalties on government authorities involved in torture and abduction.

"Instead of Malacañang desperately trying to downplay the aid cut, it should undertake concrete efforts to improve its human rights report card," Estrada stressed.