Bonifacio H. Gillego

In the past year, various government agencies particularly the military, the police and the Commission of Human Rights (CHR), have claimed that the incidence of human rights violations in the Philippines have decreased dramatically. This claim is supported by government statistics based on the reported cases of human rights violations committed by agents of the state. The alleged decrease in the number of human rights violations in the country, however, is being made in the midst of the CHR’s own admission that the top four (4) violators of human rights today are in this order: (1) elements of the Philippine National Police (PNP); (2) members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP); (3) local government officials; and (4) members of the Civilian Armed Forces geographical Unit or CAFGUs.

During the past year, we in the Committee on Civil, Political and Human Rights of the House of Representatives, conducted a number of public hearings in Luzon, Visayas and in Mindanao in order to establish a working knowledge of the true human rights situation in the country today. During these hearings, I have been convinced that human rights violations have largely gone unreported officially either because these incidents happen in remote areas of the country or because of fear and hopelessness. This study on administrative detention is significant because it brings into light another aspect of human rights violations in the Philippines. I am referring to the apparent "sub-culture" of violence and gross disrespect for human rights that is being committed by law enforcers.

Notwithstanding the existence of the constitutional guarantees on human rights enshrined in the 1987 Constitution, the repeal of various repressive decrees and the adoption of a number of international human rights instruments, the fact remains that the culture of tyranny and repression is still well-entrenched in the politico-military bureaucracy.