There is a new Philippine president. Noynoy Aquino has stepped into the challenging role as “hope of the nation” and has selected his Cabinet that promises a corruption-free Philippines. It is particularly outstanding because of the presence of designated Department of Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, the former Human Rights Commissioner who bravely sought to uncover the bloody hands behind countless assassinations and murders of social activists, human rights workers and leaders of civil society.
She had the courage to challenge the police and military that was blocking the Commission’s investigators who were finally stymied by the judge who would not issue a search warrant for the Commission’s investigators to search a killing field in Davao where body parts were uncovered, some of them of women and children.
With this promising start in the new administration of President Aquino, there is optimism that the protection of the most vulnerable in society will take priority and there will be an end to death squads, assassinations, and the rampant violation of human rights by those supposed to protect the citizens from such evils and injustices but are frequently the perpetrators themselves.
Considering the impunity enjoyed by assassins and death squads around the country under the Arroyo administration, the government of President Noynoy Aquino has to question the training methods and strategies taught to Philippine troops and police by the US International Military Education & Training (IMET).
Hundreds of police and military personnel are trained annually here and abroad and that training appears to inculcate excessive aggression, brutality and combative killing methods deployed with “extreme prejudice” against social activists, even priests and dissidents arbitrarily branded as “enemies of state.” The role of the police and military as protectors and enforcers of the rule of law for victims and law-abiding citizens seems to be lost. Respect for human rights apparently is not on the training agenda and this is what needs to be changed.
Secretary Leila de Lima has the most challenging of tasks. She has made her priorities clear by her past words backed by action and resolve. First of all, is the desire to promote those just and honest, intelligent prosecutors that love the rule of law and are people of integrity. These are the prosecutors that are dedicated to the protection of abused women and children, victims of human rights violations and heinous crimes and have compassion for the children in conflict with the law.
Secretary of Justice de Lima will clean out the corrupt and incompetent prosecutors, the protectors of child rapists and who take the stuffed envelops and dismisses the complaints despite the most overwhelming of evidence. It is only with her planned overhaul of the Department that she will be able to dispel the cynicism and lack of trust of the people in the Department of Justice lost during the past decade. There are good people in the DOJ that must be given a chance to do good and not be overruled by the corrupt officials on the take.
The Presidential Committee on Child Protection, of which I was once a member, took up the neglected cases of child exploitation, abuse, trafficking and heinous crimes and pursue them with dedication, even to the point of pursuing foreign sex rapists and convicting them in their country of origin under extraterritorial jurisdiction laws.
There were the good days when child protection and justice for the abused was a priority of the Justice Department and civil society. But it didn’t last long. Instead, the priority was the protection of the ill-gotten gains of the corrupt and criminal cronies of politicians. The Philippines topped the most corrupt nation list.
The huge number of dismissed cases of trafficking, child abuse and child abduction is evidence of corruption and incompetence. The shame of Olongapo, is the case of the two Americans who held 2 ten-year-old children for four years as sex slaves. Charges were dismissed despite overwhelming evidence. They were allowed to walk away and flew back to the USA and allegedly took a pregnant 15-year-old with them. The local DSWD official who signed the recommendation for the travel document for the child must be held accountable. Where is that pregnant child now?
