By JAY R. GOTERA
The Saudi Gazette
MANILA
THE Philippines is under a “climate of impunity,” with its “security services” involved in a number of arbitrary, unlawful and extra-judicial killings.
The damning indictment came from the US State Department in its 2006 annual human rights report.
The report, prepared by the State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, said “members of the security services committed acts of physical and psychological abuse on suspects and detainees, and there were instances of torture.”
The report said the “climate of impunity” was bred in part by “widely held and accurate public perception” that the 115,000-man Philippine National Police (PNP) was corrupt.
It said “members of the PNP were regularly accused of torture, of soliciting bribes, and of other illegal acts,” although there are efforts to reform the institution to “counter a widespread impression of official impunity.”
The report said that while PNP officers appear to be receptive to respecting human rights, “rank-and-file awareness… remained inadequate.”
However, the report also assailed the New People’s Army (NPA) for the use of landmines and suggested they were behind some of the activists’ murders.
“Many of these killings went unsolved and unpunished, contributing to a climate of impunity, despite intensified government efforts during the year (2006) to investigate and prosecute these cases,” the report said.
In response, Malacanang said the US State Department was just “reminding” the Philippines that the issue of extrajudicial killings is “catching a lot of attention and should really be addressed effectively.”
Arbitrary or warrantless arrests and detentions were common, the report also said. Trials were delayed and procedures were prolonged. Prisoners awaiting trial and those already convicted were often held under primitive conditions, it added.
The report also noted that while the Arroyo government attempted to interfere with the working of the press, the government generally respected press rights.
“The law provides for freedom of speech and of the press, and, except for a few instances during a week-long imposition of a state of national emergency (in February 2006), the government generally respected these rights in practice,” it said.
The report said the media were active and “expressed a wide variety of views without restriction.”
“Broadcast and print media were freewheeling and often criticized for lacking rigorous journalistic ethics. They tended to reflect the particular political or economic orientations of owners, publishers, or patrons, some of whom were close associates of present or past high-level officials. Special interests often used bribes and other inducements to solicit one-sided and erroneous reports and commentaries that supported their positions,” it added.
On the killing of media men, the report noted human rights groups have frequently criticized government for failing to protect journalists. “In some situations, it was difficult to discern if violence against journalists was carried out in retribution for their profession or if these journalists were the victims of random crime,” it said.
The report cited a study of the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR) in September 2005 which said most of the slain journalists were not professionally trained as journalists or formally accredited to any national media organization.
CMFR listed 61 journalists killed since democracy was restored in 1986.
Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said the US, being a long-time ally, “does not want to castigate” the Philippines.
“They just want to remind us about this so that we will not be a thorn in the neck in our relations with them,” he said.
Ermita said US Ambassador Kristie Kenney, during their breakfast meeting last week, indicated the Americans are satisfied with the measures that the Arroyo administration is implementing to address the unexplained killings.
A United Nations special rapporteur, Philip Alston, earlier said the military remains in a state of almost “total denial” of its need to respond effectively and authentically to the significant number of killings attributed to it.
Both the government and the military called the UN rapporteur’s findings unfair and inaccurate.
The human rights group Karapatan said over 850 killings and 180 forced disappearances have occurred in the Philippines since 2001 and are continuing unabated.
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