Danilo Reyes

Human Rights activists hold up photos of their slain colleagues and the UN Human Rights Committee decision finding the
state guilty of violating the right to life; at a press conference on November 24. (L-R) Eden Marcellana's 12-year-old daughter
Dana, Eden's sister Helen Mercado, Karapatan Sec Gen Marie Hilao-Enriquez and legal counsel Edre Olalia.
(Photo: Karapatan)

In recent times, the Filipino people have suffered terrible loss to life, limb and their sanity, due to the renewed conflict in parts of Mindanao. Their faith is gradually fading; and they wonder whether there will ever be a way out of the seemingly never-ending cycle of violence that has repeatedly engulfed them.

While most victims of violence and atrocities have already lost hope of obtaining any kind of redress or remedy, a few others continue to cling on to an all but fleeting belief that real change is not impossible. They force themselves into believing that something could still be achieved, even amidst adversity.

These ‘hopefuls’ are a few human rights activists and lawyers. Despite extensive propaganda to discredit and sow hatred on them, both by the government and journalists among mainstream media—who are being used or have allowed themselves to be used by the government —they carry on their struggle for a better tomorrow. Indeed, their courage and resilience in such dismal times is sometimes hard to fathom.

The international community including international and regional NGOs may have done their bit, through fact finding missions to the country and other means, to influence public opinion and pave the way for a decline in extrajudicial killings. However, it is these hopefuls—the lawyers and the activists—who unknown to many, keep the issues alive and continue the struggle on the ground. They engage in their daily work and do what they can, to obtain remedy through a fragile and failing justice system.

They interview victims and document abuses; they provide legal aid, file complaints and fight court cases on behalf of the victims and their families. Eventually, they are hoping that those responsible for violating their rights would eventually be held accountable. They pour all their energies and resources into what they believe in, despite the meagre results they know, they are likely to obtain.

Remaining sane

Not unlike people under other oppressive regimes, they know that to remain sane and act rationally in the midst of insanity is perhaps the greatest struggle enlightened persons have to deal with. If these lawyers and their clients had lost hope, or lost trust in the administration of justice in the country, they would not even bother complaining about their grievances. This is especially so, since the majority of victims have long ago, stopped bothering anyway.

The loss of hope of the majority of ordinary folk has in fact resulted in a terrible cycle of violence; and has cemented impunity. It is high time, the police, prosecution and judiciary realize it is the recognition of and faith in the system by this ‘hopeful few’ that makes their institutions still relevant in the scheme of things. Thus, to heap wrath, exploit and abuse those who still hold on to the belief in these institutions, is to but speedily gallop towards the destruction and irrelevance of the entire justice system.

These human rights activists and lawyers have faced their worst fear and overcome it; or else they have made a conscious decision to continue, despite it. They are continuing to help the needy; they are picking up when others are killed or have left off; and they remain sane while speaking out and working against the madness that surrounds them. The choice in life they have made is a wonderful example in human endurance.

Against almost all odds, families of victims of extrajudicial killings are carrying on filing  complaints knowing it takes years, if not forever, to get someone responsible prosecuted. Human rights activists are providing invaluable assistance to do so; while the lawyers are representing them in court, urging them forward to seek remedy in a court of law, and within the constraints of the laws of the land—not any where else.

All these people are striving so hard, not because they have no choice or no other way out. To even assume so, is insulting to their courage, resilience and determination. Instead, I prefer to think of this as the revival of courage, determination and compassion shown by our early revolutionaries who fought against the colonizers—from Spanish, British, Americans and Japanese regimes.

Today, these qualities are epitomized by a small group of ordinary people, whose faces, names and life stories most of us do not know, or forget with the passing of time.  Let us take one example:

Remigio Saladero

On October 23, the police arbitrarily arrested labour lawyer Remigio Saladero Jr., a member of a labour organization providing legal aid. He was arrested on dubious charges of murder. Like most of his fellow accused, Mr. Saladero was never informed nor knew the charges against him, until after his arrest. His arrest illustrates the hazards of being a member of the legal profession and practicing law in the country.

Mr. Saladero was charged with murder allegedly for having involved in an ambush on March 3, 2006 in Puerto Galera, Oriental Mindoro, together with several other human rights and labour activists working in the southern part of Manila. According to court records, Mr. Saladero as well as the other 70 odd accused had been thus identified as involved on the testimony of a sole witness. This fact itself gives rise to some serious questions about the accuracy and credibility of the evidence against them.

Apart from the threats of extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, false charges and continued overt surveillance, individual legal professionals and HR activists are subjected to in the course of performing their professional duties, Mr. Saladero's arrest illustrates also the threat to the legal profession as a whole. The system which once dispensed impartial justice and to which they could go to as a final resort, has now caused their own suffering.

But despite this, Mr. Saladero's friends and colleagues in the legal fraternity as well as those of the other activists unfairly charged are rallying around them; they are readying themselves to defend the accused in court; they are providing other types of assistance and the morale to fight for justice.

Despite the incomprehensible insanity of being hauled up in court on such flimsy evidence, they have resorted to the justice system and their actions remain within the law. Even now, they are hoping that justice will prevail and they will be exonerated from the fabricated charges against them.

To see human rights activists and lawyers forced to defend themselves in court against questionable allegations speaks volumes about the intolerance and injustice engrained in the system itself. They have been the victims of the worst forms of atrocities in the past; and they are being repeatedly victimized while those responsible remain at large.

And there are many others: Felidito Dacut of Tacloban City; Norman Bocar of Borongan, Samar; Gil Gojol of Sorsogon—all lawyers—have been killed while dozens of others have faced threats to their lives as consequences of diligently engaging in their daily work. However, few if any perpetrators have been apprehended, charged or convicted.

If not for the HR activists and lawyers who remain committed to obtaining legal remedy and redress, despite the risks they face from the same institutions of justice they strive to preserve—the institutional structures might very well have collapsed.  This incredible scenario deserves in-depth reflection, not only by the legal and human rights spheres, but by people from all walks of life in our society.

It is no longer only about the problems faced by activists and lawyers; but it raises serious questions to all Filipinos too—in our homes, our workplaces and our law schools.

What is happening in our society today? Is this the type of society that we wanted our children to grow up in? Is this a type of criminal justice system that aspiring lawyers desire to serve when they begin their practice? This is no longer a legal or moral question, but a question of contempt of the very fabric of our society.

But first, we need to rid ourselves of the complacency that everything is in its place; and working—when it is clearly not.