By Germelina Lacorte
Inquirer Mindanao
5:41 pm | Sunday, April 27th, 2014
President Barack Obama. AP FILE PHOTO
DAVAO CITY, Philippines – The international rights watchdog Human Rights Watch (HRW) urged US President Barack Obama to use his Manila visit to press the Philippine government to fulfill pledges to improve respect for human rights and accountability for serious abuses.
“President Benigno Aquino III’s administration has undertaken reform efforts in some areas but failed to match rhetoric with meaningful action to end impunity for extrajudicial killings, torture, and enforced disappearances,” Human Rights Watch said in a statement. “While abuses overall have decreased since the previous Arroyo administration, killings of political activists, environmental advocates, and local politicians continue with alarming frequency and have begun to rise again, in many cases with apparent involvement by local authorities and the security forces,” the HRW said.
“The Philippines remains a risky place to be an outspoken activist or muckraking journalist,” said John Sifton, HRW Asia advocacy director. “People taking on powerful local interests all too frequently make the news as victims, and those responsible for killings are almost never prosecuted,” Sifton added.
The rights watchdog also wrote a letter to Obama the previous month, urging the US president to raise human rights issues during his visit to Manila.
“The last year featured a major surge in killings of journalists in the Philippines: 12 were killed in 2013, bringing to 26 the total number of media workers killed since Aquino took office in 2010,” the HRW statement said.
“In only six of those cases have police even arrested suspects,” the HRW added.
HRW also noted that local authorities in a number of urban areas have been implicated in “death squads,” which have executed dozens of suspected petty criminals, drug dealers, and street children.
“The Philippines military and various insurgent groups, including the communist New People’s Army and Moro (Muslim) rebel groups, have also been implicated in serious abuses in the context of armed conflict,” the statement said, adding that during fighting in September 2013 between Moro rebels and government forces in Zamboanga, the group documented violations by both sides, including the “use of human shields by the rebels.”
HRW said the US Congress has placed conditions on assistance to the Philippines military since 2008, withholding portions of yearly funding until the Philippines government demonstrated a better record on prosecuting extrajudicial killing cases.
“Human Rights Watch urges Obama to raise concerns about rights issues during his meeting with Aquino, and to use future US military cooperation as an incentive for the government to investigate and prosecute abuse cases,” the statement said.
RELATED STORIES
US, Philippines reach deal on troops
Obama visit in the PH means no-fly, no-sail zones; red alert up
Follow Us
Other Stories:
Recent Stories:
Tags: assassination , Barack Obama , Defense , enforced disappearances , Global Nation , Human Rights , Human Rights Watch , Impunity , John Sifton , Military , Military Agreement , murder , Philippines , Security , state visit , United States
Factual errors? Contact the Philippine Daily Inquirer’s day desk. Believe this article violates journalistic ethics? Contact the Inquirer’s Reader’s Advocate. Or write The Readers’ Advocate:
