Government warned of backlash over poor rights record

MANILA, Philippines – Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. yesterday 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, if 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 extrajudicial killings Philip Alston which said that the government failed to institutionalize the reforms recommended by the UN two years ago to put a stop to such killings.

He said the government would gain nothing by denying Alston’s uncomplimentary conclusion but 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 UN recommendations, 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 re-commendations. 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.

Pimentel said there had been a sharp drop in the European Union’s development assistance in 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.

He also emphasized that several US senators and congressmen have insisted that the government should take concrete actions to solve unexplained killings as a condition for the grant of military and development aid. –Aurea Calica, Philippine Star