As President Benigno Aquino III prepares to deliver his first State of the Nation Address (SONA), rights groups challenged him to seriously pursue “zero human rights violations” during his term.

According to Max De Mesa, Chairperson of the Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates (PAHRA), PNoy “should put human rights at the heart of his governance” and adopt policies that will put a stop to killings and forced disappearances of militants and journalists.

Meanwhile, Teody Navea of the NGO-PO Network for ESC Rights also stressed that the PNoy administration should also give equal importance to economic, social, and cultural rights particularly food, housing, education, work, and health.

Extra judicial killings that has tainted the human rights record of the previous Arroyo administration is again threatening to rear its ugly head with the killing of a political activist and a former broadcaster barely a week after PNoy’s inauguration.

On July 3, former radio broadcaster Jose Daguio was shot and killed by an unidentified man in his backyard in Tabuk, Kalinga. Two days later, Fernando Baldomero, a town councilor and provincial coordinator of the militant party-list group Bayan Muna, was also shot dead by an assailant in front of his son in Kalibo, Aklan.

De Mesa urged Pres. Aquino to certify as urgent human rights bills such as the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) charter, compensation for Marcos victims, enforced disappearances and extra-legal killings, internally displaced persons (IDPs), and protection for human rights defenders.

Navea also reiterated that hunger as experienced by around four (4) million households based on latest Social Weather Station (SWS) survey should be considered a human rights violation that requires utmost and immediate attention from the government. The same is true for forced evictions of urban poor families, contractualization of workers, non-enrolment of children in schools, and other socio-economic deprivations, she added.

Both groups bat for the unconditional release of political prisoners, full implementation of the anti-torture law increased government spending on social services, repeal of automatic appropriation for debt servicing, passage of the reproductive health bill, repeal of the 1995 mining act, and ratification of the optional protocols to the covenants on torture and economic, social, and cultural rights.

“Zero Human Rights Violations”

Defend Dignity! End Impunity!

Human Rights Agenda Towards “Zero HRVs”

• Certify as urgent the following human rights bills:
  • Commission on Human Rights Charter
  • Martial Law victims compensation
  • Enforced disappearance and extra-legal killings
  • Internally displaced persons (IDPs)
  • Anti-discrimination
  • Protection of human rights defenders
  • Release of detainees on recognizance
  • Reproductive health
  • Alternative Mining Act
  • Magna Carta for the Informal Sector
• Review, adopt and implement the National Human Rights Action Plan (NHRAP)
• Resolve speedily the cases of the PICOP 6 in Agusan del Sur, the Ampatuan massacre and the Morong 43.
• Release unconditionally all political prisoners.
• Call for a moratorium on large-scale mining and forced evictions.
• Stop privatization of public utilities, such as the Angat Dam privatization
• Hasten the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) and fully implement the Anti-Torture Act.
• Ratify the optional protocols to the Convention Against Torture (CAT) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ESCR)
• Transmit to the Senate the Rome Statute on the International Criminal Court for ratification
• Increase the budgets for social services such as education, housing, and health.
• Repeal Presidential Decree 1177 or the automatic appropriation for debt servicing in the national budget and the 1995 mining act
• Pursue sincerely the peace talks with the communist and Muslim rebels
• Ban labor contractualization and union-busting
• Dismantle the private armies and para-military groups
• Review and implement the Concluding Observations of the UN treaty bodies and the mandate holders of the HR Council Special Procedures

Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates (PAHRA)
Philippine NGO-PO Network on ESC Rights