MANILA, Philippines - There is talk that many countries were critical of the Philippine report to the UN Human Rights Committee. On the contrary, the Philippines was the most applauded and commended in that conference. We have a video recording of the conference to substantiate this claim. Also, the head of the US delegation said that “the US congratulates Secretary [Eduardo] Ermita for the engagement in this process and for introducing best practices.”

Other countries like Switzerland viewed “positively the measures adopted by the Philippine authorities in the abolition of extrajudicial executions and welcomes the cooperation it has developed in this regard.” Japan for its part said, “We highly regard the efforts made by the government of the Philippines in promoting fundamental human rights. We appreciate the sincere efforts made and the various measures taken by the government of the Philippines so far, such as the establishment of the Human Rights Office in the AFP, the establishment of a special task force to handle relevant cases, and the strengthening of the witness protection program.”

The recent resolutions of the Supreme Court before the UNHRC were also explained—the writ of amparo as the extraordinary remedy available to any person whose right to life, liberty or security is being violated or threatened by an unlawful act or mission of a public official, a private individual or entity (the writ covers extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances or threats thereof); and amparo’s twin, the writ of habeas data, as another extraordinary remedy available to any person whose right to privacy and life, liberty or security is being violated or threatened by an unlawful act or a mission of a public official/employee, private individual or entity engaged in the gathering or collecting, storing of data or information regarding the person, family, home or correspondences of the aggrieved party.

It would seem that those who criticized the report were not listening during the entire conference. They should go to the website of the UNHRC so that they can issue more accurate public statements about the report. From the records of that conference, it is very clear that 34 countries congratulated the Philippines for the work it has been doing to eliminate extrajudicial killings.

—RICARDO R. BLANCAFLOR,
justice undersecretary and chair, Task Force 211
(Extrajudicial Killings)