Extrajudicial killings remain biggest concern in PHL – US human rights report

Security forces continue to commit extrajudicial killings under President Benigno Aquino III’s administration although a few convictions of rights violations has sparked hope that change is underway, the US State Department said in an annual human rights report Friday.

While the 2013 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices tried to present a mixed picture of progress and concerns in the Philippines, it reported that some of the dismal conditions that allowed rights violations to continue have endured.

“It’s clear to me that extrajudicial killings remain foremost among the human rights challenges in the Philippines,” US Ambassador Philip Goldberg said in a statement issued in Manila with the human rights report.

But he tried to strike a balance by stating that he was “encouraged by the Philippines’ recent extrajudicial killings convictions.”

There were only three such convictions last year, according to the report, reflecting the need for the Aquino administration to step up efforts to bring perpetrators of killings and other abuses to justice.

The State Department cited extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances undertaken by security forces as the most significant human rights problem in the Philippines.

Although government officials say violations have gone down compared to past periods, including the dark Martial Law era under President Ferdinand Marcos, the Philippines continues to be hounded by human rights problems.

The US Congress continues to impose a limit on military aid to the Philippines, which was first announced in 2009, due to the country’s failure to stop extrajudicial killings and convict many of the violators.

The US report cited conditions that allow rights violations to continue, including the country’s “dysfunctional criminal justice system” that hampers cooperation between police and prosecutors.

Although there has been progress in running after big time corruption suspects through high-profile investigations, the process has been slowed by ‘lengthy procedural delays and widespread official corruption and abuse of power.”

Other human rights problems, the report said, include: allegations of prisoner and detainee torture and abuse by security forces; violence and harassment against human rights activists by local security forces; disappearances; warrantless arrests; and lengthy pre-trial detentions.

The State Department also expressed concern on overcrowded and inadequate prison conditions; killings and harassment of journalists; internally displaced persons (IDPs); violence against women; abuse and sexual exploitation of children; and trafficking in persons.

Limited access to facilities for persons with disabilities; lack of full integration of indigenous people; absence of law and policy to protect persons from discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity; suspected vigilante killings; child labor; and ineffective enforcement of worker rights were also a concern.

The State Department is mandated to provide a detailed report on the status of human rights in more than 100 countries to help the US government assess its policy and foreign assistance.

The report also noted that long-running Muslim separatist and communist insurgencies continue to result in the displacement of civilians and the killing of soldiers and police in armed clashes.

Terrorist organizations such as the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG), Jemaah Islamiya (JI), and the New People’s Army (NPA), as well as elements associated with the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), including the breakaway Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), continue to kill security forces, local government officials, and other civilians, according to the report.

The Moro National Islamic Liberation Front (MNLF) also conducted military operations against government security forces and civilians.

These organizations, the report said, continue to be linked with kidnappings for ransom, bombings that caused civilian casualties, reports of the use of child soldiers in combat or auxiliary roles, and unauthorized courts.

The Philippine government and the MILF recently concluded a new autonomy deal that is expected to be signed next month by both sides in what has been praised as a major step to ease decades of Muslim unrest that has killed more than 120,000 people and held back progress in Southern Mindanao. — JDS, GMA News