CHR urged to take Lim to court

Human rights commissioners can sue Interior and Local Government Secretary Alfredo Lim on behalf of people whose rights Lim allegedly violated during his spray-painting campaign against drug pushers in Manila, a congresswoman said yesterday.

Speaking during a weekly forum at Cuidad Fernandina in Greenhills, San Juan, party-list Rep. Henrietta Rosales said the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) has the mandate to fight for taxpayers and that there is no need for a victim to directly complain to be able to pursue a case in court.

"I do not encourage this technicality because it's only a convenient attempt of Lim to cover up his abuses," she said.

Rosales was reacting to a statement of one of Lim's counsels that there is no case against Lim's spray-painting campaign because nobody has directly complained that his human rights had been violated.

Lawyer Jess Santos said the Pasig Regional Trial Court had earlier dismissed the case against Lim after questioning the personality of two CHR commissioners as complainants.

Last month, the Court of Appeals (CA) declared that Lim's spray-painting campaign violated the Constitution's guarantee of due process for people accused in criminal cases.

Lim has elevated the case to the Supreme Court, hoping that the CA's decision would be reversed so that he can resume spray-painting the houses of accused drug peddlers with pending cases in court.

Rosales called on human rights victims to be vigilant and that they should not be intimidated by Malacanang's support for Lim's shame campaign.

Meanwhile, Lim told reporters the threat of a new lawyers' group to support efforts to stop his controversial campaign has not affected him at all.

"There might be some sector who does not believe our effort," he said. "Everybody has his own principle. But I'm confident that there are more people who fully support me to eradicate the drug problem. Even if we conduct a spot referendum now, I'm sure I will win."

He also welcomed the CA's decision dismissing the petition of lawyer Arthur Lim, president of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, to withdraw the IBP's complaint against him.

"We don't consider it as a setback because we know that from the start Lim is an ally and our supporter," he said. "If the CA cannot recognize it we can also defend ourselves through other ways."

His lawyer is studying all possibilities to revive the spray-painting campaign, he added.-