MANILA, Philippines – On the heels of the Maguindanao massacre, one of the worst cases of human rights violations in the world, the Philippines is ready to host the office of the first human rights body of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said the Philippines’ standing offer to host the office of the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) in Manila at the appropriate time was raised again by President Arroyo during the ASEAN summit in October.
DFA spokesman Eduardo Malaya said yesterday the AICHR, which was launched in October, will be housed at a small unit in the ASEAN headquarters in Jakarta during its initial stage.
“The Philippine offer to host the main headquarters in the Philippines remains and is being considered. The AICHR is still meeting to decide the evolution of the human rights body,” Malaya told The STAR.
Manila reaffirmed the decision by member states during the 15th ASEAN summit held in Cha-am, Hua-Hin, Thailand last Oct. 23 to 25 to contribute $20,000 by the end of the year to the AICHR’s start-up fund to ensure that it will have the necessary support to begin its work to promote and protect human rights in the region. Highlights of the summit include the inauguration of the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights, the adoption of a declaration on climate change to reaffirm ASEAN’s position in the negotiations under the UN Frameworks Convention on Climate Change as well as the adoption of a declaration on education cooperation to achieve an ASEAN community.
The Washington-based Freedom House earlier said the Maguindanao massacre last week was a “shocking” symptom of the climate of impunity in the Philippines and the government’s inability to protect freedom of expression.
Freedom House, an independent nongovernment organization that supports the expansion of freedom in the world that has been monitoring political rights and civil liberties in the Philippines since 1972, strongly condemned the killings, saying it added to the worst violence in recent Philippine history where almost 60 people, including journalists, were killed and buried in shallow graves in the province of Maguindanao.
During the past several years, Freedom House noted significant declines in the Philippines, both in terms of freedom of expression as well as in political rights resulting from electoral fraud, corruption, and government intimidation of political opposition.
According to Freedom House, killings of journalists, human rights defenders, and other activists have increased dramatically, and in the majority of cases, these crimes have gone unpunished.
The Philippines is ranked Partly Free in both the 2009 editions of Freedom in the World, Freedom House’s annual survey of political rights and civil liberties, and Freedom of the Press, Freedom House’s annual survey of media independence.
A human rights watchdog also said the Maguindanao massacre tragically shows the failure of the Arroyo administration to hold accountable perpetrators of extrajudicial killings.
The New York-based Human Rights Watch urged the government to initiate a fully independent investigation and full prosecution, saying these are crucial because of the possible involvement of members of security forces and local militias in the Maguindanao massacre, which means that security personnel should not be allowed to interfere in an independent investigation.
Since Arroyo took office in 2001, Human Rights Watch noted that hundreds of left-wing political party members, human rights activists, journalists, and outspoken clergy have been killed or forcibly disappeared, but only six cases have been successfully prosecuted.
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