Satur C. Ocampo » Accountability for Human Rights Violations

By Rep. Satur C. Ocampo
Bayan Muna Party-List

Privilege Speech delivered before the House of Representatives on December 10, 2007

Today peoples all over the world observe the 59th year of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights. The Philippines was among the 48 countries that adopted this historic declaration in 1948. Ironically, our country which is a member of the newly established UN Human Rights Council, has gained international notoriety for countless human right violations especially in the last six years.

Since 2001, a systematic and brutal campaign of repression has been committed mainly against activists, journalists, peasants, trade union leaders, church workers and leaders, students, women and children. Such state-initiated campaign has been affirmed by the report of Prof. Philip Alston, UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions.

Calls for justice from the victims, their families, church groups and human rights advocates have been largely unheeded by the national government. These have caused concern among international organizations. Their efforts have begun to pay off in terms of strong international rebuke on the Arroyo government for the spate of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances.

In March this year, the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands found the Arroyo government, along with the Bush government, guilty of crimes against humanity. While the PPT findings may not be legally binding, they have a moral clout putting government to task. The PPT recommendations have been submitted to various international tribunals, including the UN.

That same month, human rights and church groups testified before the US Senate on the killings and disappearances, and called attention to the huge amount of US military aid granted to the Armed Forces of the Philippines which may have been channeled for the commission of human rights violations. Recently, the US Senate set conditions for the approval of additional military aid, including the implementation of the Alston report’s recommendations.