'$2-million US military aid withheld'

MANILA, Philippines - Speaker Prospero Nograles said yesterday the $2-million US military aid for the Philippines has been “temporarily withheld” pending questions about human rights violations, contrary to reports that the US Congress had canceled it.

“They (US officials) said it was just temporarily withheld,” he said.

“I am confident that the military aid will be released soon. We just need to explain and communicate. I’m embarrassed because I’m from Davao and there are many human rights violations (there),” he said, apparently referring to the alleged death squads that operate in the southern city.

Nograles issued the clarification after Bayan Muna Rep. Neri Colmenares said a source at the US State Department informed him during his Oct. 27 visit to Washington that the allocated amount for this year had been scrapped.

Speaking to reporters, Nograles, a former human rights lawyer, said he wanted to make it clear that human rights is not just a concern of the Philippines but of the whole world.

Right after attending the joint session of the US Congress last Nov. 3, Nograles made sure he apprised US lawmakers that the Philippines is doing something about human rights abuses.

Nograles attended the World e-Parliament Conference 2009 in Washington last week.

Nograles said he asked the country’s diplomats in the US to send a copy of the bill giving prosecutorial powers and full fiscal autonomy to the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) to the US Congress to show that the government is responding to human rights issues.

In 2008, following a Senate hearing on the human rights situation in the Philippines, the US Congress voted to place a condition on the release of the full amount of military aid to the Philippines.

Colmenares said the conditions include the implementation of the recommendations of United Nations rapporteur Philip Alston, the investigation and prosecution of military officials accused of human rights violations, and that violence and intimidation of legal organizations should not form part of the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ policy.