Pia deplores bleak state of human rights in RP

Senate opposition member Pia S. Cayetano today deplored the bleak state of human rights under the Arroyo regime as the world observes International Human Rights Day and the 60th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations General Assembly.

"The long list of unresolved killings of journalists and political activists best illustrates the bleak state of human rights today."

The impunity with which these violations were done and are continuously being perpetrated have caused so much disillusionment with the government that it seems our only remaining hope for all of this to cease is when a new president is finally elected in 2010," she said.

Cayetano said that among the more prominent unresolved rights cases are the 2007 abduction of agriculturist and political activist Jonas Burgos, son of the late press freedom fighter Jose Burgos.

She also cited the 2006 abduction of UP students Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeño, whose case became the subject of the very first writ of amparo that was issued by the Court of Appeals and subsequently affirmed by the Supreme Court.

"As a mother who also lost a child, I grieve with the victims' mothers who continue to seek justice even as they painfully search for any traces that may lead to their missing children."

She also noted the case of community journalist Marlene Esperat who was slain in 2005 by assassins reportedly hired to silence her after exposing the fertilizer fund scam in 2004.

"The Senate's continuing search for truth on the fertilizer fund scam and much of what has been uncovered so far regarding this multi-million scandal can be traced to the crusading work of Esperat, a lady journalist who was killed in the line of duty."

Cayetano also expressed concern over the report by press freedom watchdogs that 77 journalists have already been killed in the line of duty since 1986, 39 of them during the Arroyo presidency.

"Human rights day should remind us of the continuing need to affirm and assert our basic rights and to press state actors on their commitment to protect and uphold the rights of the citizenry," she concluded.