Press Release
May 14, 2009

Govt warned of backlash from poor human right record

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Q. Pimentel, Jr. warned that the dismal human rights record of the Arroyo administration is making the Philippines more unattractive to foreign investments and forcing donor-countries to drastically reduce, it not withdraw, development aid.

Pimentel said Malacañang should admit its shortcomings in solving and preventing human rights violations instead of discrediting the new report of United Nations special rapporteur on extra-judicial killings Philip Alston that the government failed to institutionalize the reforms recommended by the UN two years ago to put a stop to extra-judicial killings.

He said the government will gain nothing by denying Alston's uncomplimentary conclusion except to incur the contempt of the UN and the international community in the face of incontrovertible facts pointing to its lip-service approach in solving disappearances and summary executions of political activists.

Pimentel said that while the Philippines, being a sovereign nation, could not be compelled to faithfully comply with the recommendations of the UN, such defiance could trigger a backlash that would be very damaging and humiliating for the country.

"Simply stated, the UN cannot directly order us to follow its recommendations. But the consequence of it is they can make things difficult for us. To be sure, that will have an impact on the assistance to the Philippines coming, for instance, from the US and the European Union," he said.

As a matter of fact, the opposition senator from Mindanao pointed out there has been a sharp drop in the European Union's development the Philippines over recent years, which could be attributed to the pressure it is exerting on the Arroyo administration to improve its human rights record.

In the same manner, he said several senators and congressmen of the United States Congress have imposed the condition that the Philippines government should take concrete actions in solving extra-judicial killings as a condition for the grant of military and development aid.

Pimentel said the Arroyo administration's indifference and indecisiveness in addressing the problem is graphically illustrated in its failure to prosecute and punish the perpetrators of the abduction of political activist Jonas Burgos two years after it took place despite the strong evidence that has surfaced.

He said it is supremely ironic that a suspected culprit behind the political slayings, retired Gen. Jovito Palparan, is being coddled by the Arroyo administration and was even installed as party-list representative to Congress in total mockery and disregard of the recommendation of the Melo Fact-Finding Commission that he should be prosecuted and held liable for his offenses.

In a desperate bid to make up for its inaction, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo announced that she was putting up a P25-million fund to reward persons who would help unmask, neutralize and penalize the perpetrators of extra-judicial killings.

Pimentel said the belated damage-control step taken by the President was the height of hypocrisy because her government had previously ignored the recommendations of the Alston report and even by Congress to provide the Commission on Human Rights with funds for the protection of witnesses in extra-judicial killing under its investigation.

He said it is wishful thinking to expect any dramatic improvement in the human rights situation in the country during remaining year of the Arroyo administration in the absence of sincerity and political will to solve the problem.

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