Tough challenges to P-Noy

The outcomes of two proceedings last May 29 — coincidentally held in places far apart from each other — now put combined pressures on President Aquino to act decisively on long-pending issues that he had vowed to tackle but fell short doing.

One was the Senate impeachment court trial that led to Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona’s conviction for culpable violation of the Constitution and betrayal of public trust for not fully disclosing, over many years, his bank deposits in his annual statements of assets, liabilities and net worth, or SALNs.

The other was the United Nations Human Rights Council universal periodic review session in Geneva (the topic of last week’s column), wherein delegations from 69 countries questioned the Philippine government and pressed it to take decisive measures against grave human rights violations, with the view of ending impunity.

After Corona’s conviction and removal from office, seven party-list representatives who constitute a progressive bloc in the House (all of them had signed the impeachment complaint) signed a waiver to enable anyone to look into their bank accounts and assets. They challenged President Aquino to do the same, in compliance with the constitutional mandate that “public office is a public trust.”

At the same time, the bloc challenged P-Noy to “apply the same zeal he had in going after Corona in pursuing plunder, ill-gotten wealth and other cases of graft and corruption and human rights violations against former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and other conspirators.”

The party-list bloc has good grounds for taking such a stand vis-a-vis the President:

1. Soon after P-Noy took office in mid-2010, Reps. Teodoro Casino and Neri Javier Colmenares, both of Bayan Muna, filed with the Department of Justice a plunder case against Arroyo. However, the DoJ didn’t act on the complaint because P-Noy was dead set on setting up a Truth Commission, appointing former Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr. as its chair, to investigate the crimes and abuses of power by the Arroyo government.

The commission never got to function; the Supreme Court subsequently declared its creation unconstitutional. Yet it took over a year before the government filed a case against Arroyo, for electoral sabotage, and later a case for graft and corruption.

2. On the numerous human rights violations under the previous administration, P-Noy failed to take decisive action. In fact, 76 cases of extrajudicial killings and 9 enforced disappearances, among other violations, have been documented under his watch.

It took the victims and their relatives, aided by human rights lawyers, to initiate the filing of human rights violation cases against Arroyo and her erring military officers — particularly her favorite, retired Army Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan, who has been tagged as “The Butcher.”

At the UNHRC review of the Philippines’ human rights performance, 22 countries pointed to the “dismal record” in prosecuting cases of extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, and torture. They deplored the continuing climate or culture of impunity, even as some countries acknowledged the government’s ratification of treaties, the passage of legislations and training of security forces purportedly to improve human rights in the country.    

One particular issue brought up was the utter failure of the P-Noy government to arrest Palparan and bring him before the Bulacan regional trial court to face the charge of abduction, torture, and disappearance in 2006 of UP students Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeno.

Australia led a group of countries in specifically calling for Palparan’s arrest and prosecution.

Here’s how various countries manifested their displeasure or disapproval:

The Netherlands urged the government to end impunity by arresting, prosecuting and convicting the perpetrators, while Ireland seconded with a demand for “decisive measures.”

The Holy See, UK, and Spain called on the government to “completely eradicate extrajudicial killings,” while Belgium urged it to ratify the international convention against enforced disappearances.

Germany urged the strengthening of accountability mechanisms and impartial investigation of cases involving state security forces, whereas Denmark pressed for the full implementation of the anti-torture law passed by the 14th Congress in 2009.

France and Japan expressed alarm over the extrajudicial killings and “continuing violations against journalists and human rights defenders,” with Austria urging a stop to torture and attacks on journalists.

The United States affirmed the state of “impunity in human rights violations,” citing “institutional barriers” that deny justice to the victims.

The role of paramilitary forces and AFP-organized militias in human rights violations did not escape scrutiny and disapproval. Spain, Canada and several other countries pressed for the dismantling of such groups.

P-Noy has rejected calls to dismantle the Citizen Armed Forces Geographical Unit (CAFGU) — which the Cory government had placed under AFP supervision — arguing that the AFP still needed them.

Last Wednesday, Lt. Gen. Emmanuel Bautista, Philippine Army commanding general, told an Ateneo de Manila University forum that the Army plans to disband more than 50,000 CAFGUs and Special Citizens Active Auxiliaries in 2016, “within the time frame of (Oplan) Bayanihan,” the AFP counterinsurgency program which he mainly authored.

However, Bautista qualified: the disbanding would be done “when the situation improves… when our campaign plan is finished, there will be no need for paramilitary forces.”

That remains to be seen.

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