Just yesterday this writer blogged about how the Philippines now ranks second to the African nation of Sudan in the number of internally displaced persons, some 600,000, in the face of the independent Norwegian Refugee Council calls “climate changes”.
The term is less a reference to actual change in the weather as it is a reference to how conflicts, civil war, forces civilians to flee conflict zones with the dislocation leaving them homeless and jobless, huddled in evacuation centers.
Now comes an announcement from the government of the day that President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is setting aside PhP 25-M “to put an end to political killings.”
The news reports further say: “Political violence has been a scourge of Philippine politics long before our administration. We want to erase the legacy of political violence that has haunted our nation for generations,” Ms Arroyo said.
“I invite lawmakers to contribute P250,000 each from their CDF (Countrywide Development Fund) to build this fund,” she said.
The report goes own to quote Mrs. Attoyo’s ‘little president’, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita as adlibbing that while he had “no personal knowledge” of Ms Arroyo’s announcement but was not surprised by it.
Ermita said the P25-million fund was Ms Arroyo’s “way of expressing seriousness” in putting a stop to political killings adding that “the President also caused the release of P25 million” to the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) last year.
“Before I left for Geneva, Switzerland, on April 25 (to attend an international meeting on human rights) there was already talk that political killings under this administration are going high in spite of the fact that we have Task Force Usig, the Melo Commission, and most recently, Task Force 11—all intended to put a stop to these unexplained killings. I can just imagine that the President, conscious of the need to really put a stop to all this, decided that maybe we need more money … for the witness protection program, for prosecution, [and] for follow-up investigation by the police, so nobody can complain that the reason they can’t pursue this is that we lack resources.”
Malacanang’s move to throw money at the problem follows the release of the 2008 report of the non-governmental human right alliance ‘Karapatan’.
Chronicling the appalling state of human rights in the Philippines, the report points out:
“…Philippine government, as represented now by the Arroyo administration, has time and again failed in its boast of promoting the dignity and respecting the rights of Filipinos. Since its assumption to power in January 2001, this regime has been more interested in preserving its political and economic self-interest rather than ensuring the well-being of its people.
Despite repeated claims of eradicating poverty and guaranteeing democracy, the Arroyo government has deprived the people of the country’s resources and unleashed the brutality of its armed forces against those whose lives it has sworn to protect.
Discontent, not surprisingly, has risen among Filipinos due to grinding poverty, corruption and ineffectiveness of government. Those who protest this appalling state of affairs are, however, unjustly branded as terrorists or enemies of the state. They are hunted down and silenced to preserve the rule of those in power.”
The Karapatan report’s tables of statics list the cold statistics illustrating the gravity of the human rights crisis in the Philippines.
http://midfield.wordpress.com/2009/03/15/how-rebelyn-pitao-was-murdered/
Given apparent editorial deadlines, the report is surely work in progress. But one clear emblematic murder that remains unresolved is that of Davao elementary school teacher Rebelyn Pitao whose brutalized lifeless body was dumped by her killers in an irrigational canal.
It is killings such as Rebelyn’s that the government of the day seemingly thinks will be resolved simply by throwing money at it.
(Cross-posted @ At Midfield)
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How hard is it for a proper picture to be uploaded so that we don’t get these broken links on the right hand panel of an article page?
Or could it be just me?
Maybe that is why the Philippines is progressively getting uglier. Because Pinoys are so un-thorough and utterly lack a sense of aesthetics.
How could we even aspire to someday compete with Japanese- and Korean- grade engineering if we are such slobs when it comes to even the simplest things?
Even the simplest instructions, simplest rules, and simplest protocols succumb to the monumental pwede-na-yan mentality of Da Pinoy Way.
And then here we are, presuming to criticise and lecture government on proper ways of doing things.
Pinoy nga naman talaga.
Parang aso.
Matangkad lang kapag naka-upo.
- :D
The solution to killings is not money.
The solution is:
1 – For witness to take personal responsibility to report what they saw – you can’t apprehend what you don’t know
2 – For the police investigators and the public prosecutors to take personal responsibility to be thorough in the investigation so that guilt can be proved beyond reasonable doubt.
3 – Take the perpetrators to court.
4. Send the convicted felons to jail.
All that can be done without shelling additional money, if the people who are part of the justice system take personal responsibility to make the system work.
The solution to killings is not money.
The solution is:
1 – For witness to take personal responsibility to report what they saw – you can’t apprehend what you don’t know. Let us re-imagine a poem:
When the thugs came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.
Then they locked up the journalists,
I remained silent;
I was not a journalist.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the bloggers,
I did not speak out;
I was not a blogger.
When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out for me.
2 – For the police investigators and the public prosecutors to take personal responsibility to be thorough in the investigation so that guilt can be proved beyond reasonable doubt.
3. Take the perpetrators to court. The judge should take personal responsibility that the suspects are given a fair and speedy trial – justice delayed is justice denied.
4. Send the convicted felons to jail.
All that can be done without shelling additional money, if the people who are part of the justice system take personal responsibility to make the system work.
Reply
Tumbok mo Bong.
What’s chilling is the spectre of there being state sponsored terrorism, all on the pretext of the very ‘war on terror’.
The criminal justice system is shit full of holes and citizens pay for such defects with their very lives.
The justice system is a chain of many links. It is only as strong as its weakest link.
Break one link in the chain – just one link – the repercussions are felt throughout the entire chain – and justice is denied.
If people do not report perpetrators – we will have a deluge of unsolved crimes.
When People feel they have no future and their lives do not matter
anymore. This is the result. Killings, lawlessness, extremism, and
all kinds of evil imaginable…
we can choose to be hopeless.. and do nothing
or we can do something about it.
it is a personal choice.
I would like to paraphrase something that was blogged in regards to the word change. Some may shrink to that cliche specially those who can only stay for an instant gratification. During the time when I was growing, I know most people that I went to school and grew up with had left for a better life overseas. And even then those times were not as bad as it is now. This is a common trend to all ountries as we all know when things are going in a wrong direction specially. For instance Mexico, with all their natural resources each day thousands of people trying to cross the border illegaly. Thousands of people perished in the process. I could name quite a few countries that has the same if not even worst than ours. The common denominator in a situation like these is not because of uneducated, lazy and unproductive citizens. Based on History, often times the downfall of a Nation even the great ones was due to corrupt leadership. Filipinos are emotional creatures, sometimes it can be a liability when one has to make a decision. With all the academics thought at school, do we really have the inclination to choose a leader who is right for the present day situation. Or are we just going to go along with the scheme of things. We all can speculate and watch it to happen. It’s insanity to do things or nurture same things over and over again and expect a different outcome. There was a time and not quite so long ago, when all the Filipinos or some of them decided to finally end what has been cumulating this country into the dirt, their energy, inmmence tenacity, and their riped attitude to achieve a goal has led what seemed inconceivable then made it all somehow became a reality. Everyone can leave this country but don’t think it’ll disappear from the map. There’s a saying and I don’t exactly know how to quite put them in words but it goes like this… Ang hindi marunong lumingon sa kanyang pinanggalingan ay hindi makakarating sa kanyang patutuhanan. Did that make sense..
The grass is greener on the other fence of the border…
You still have to mow and take care of it to keep it green otherwise……
The green thing you see on the fence? It is not grass.
MJ.