Human Rights Essay 2r6s3s

It is a known fact that Philippines is a democratic country; people can be as free as they want so long as their exercise of freedom is within the bounds of the law. Here, your basic human rights are respected and protected. Sounds enticing right? But don’t fall in love with this idea right away. The surface may be pleasing to the eyes but once you dig deeper, surely you’ll discover the ugliness it tries to conceive from us. It would not take you that long to turn your nose away from the stink this government hides. According to an online article by Human Rights Watch, human rights violations in the country have declined under the Aquino istration. In all fairness to the presidency of His Excellency, extra judicial killings, enforced disappearances and torture are comparatively lower than the previous istration. But still, they continue to exist. The Aquino istration has failed to keep its promise of a more concrete action plan against human rights violations in the country. Committees have been formed before, just like the Special Task Force Against Extra Judicial Killings and Enforced Disappearances but according to the same article it has failed to deliver results. This move was more of a PR strategy from the government. Sounded like it was just ornamental, but not functional. But one has to look beyond these human rights issues, because there are more to these, not just the killings and the disappearances. According to the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights, state participants, (that includes the Philippines) have three obligations. a. Obligation to Respect b. Obligation to Protect c. Obligation to Fulfill Let us assess each of these areas accordingly. “The diversity and plurality of the Philippines must be safeguarded through respect and tolerance. The State must respect and promote harmony and understanding between and among individuals, communities and peoples. It must uphold nondiscrimination among peoples regardless of age, race, ethnicity, religion, gender, physical ability, sexual orientation, social beliefs and political convictions. Cultural traditions and institutionalized power shall not serve as justification for any form of violence, abuse, neglect, or deprivation of human and peoples’ rights.” This is one of the provisions written on the Human and Peoples’ Rights Declaration of the Philippines. It’s very idealistic. Words were beautifully

crafted to please whoever is reading it. But I believe that these are just purely written ideas that never get to be realized. It was clearly provided that there should be non-discrimination among people regardless of ethnicity. But what is hugely apparent is that IPs are still discriminated in many things, one of them is discrimination in education. In the country, there are 2.5 million IP children. They live mostly in remote areas where public schools offer limited services. Since they are IP children it is very important that while they get civilized through formal education, they should never forget their ethnic roots. This is where the problem stems. The curriculum offered in these schools cannot address the special needs of these IPs which could fit their own culture. IPs are also at risk of dropping out of school because of poverty or because of the distance they have to travel just to get in school. The fact that the government seem to not care about this problem, for me, is discrimination already. Yes, there are measures taken by DepEd to address this issue but it seem inadequate. Even if DepEd has already devised a special curriculum for the IPs, when it comes to the formulation of the curriculum, they are seldom invited to participate in the discussion. Is this respect? Is this respect for their basic human right to have a voice on something that greatly concerns them? I don’t think so. The government should be considerate also of their right to education. Shutting them out from the discussions of curriculum development is unfair. In order that IP education could progress, it would be helpful that there should be dialogues between the IP and DepEd on curriculum development so that both parties could land on same ground when it comes to education. Letting them voice out what they really want is showing that their human rights is respected. IPs are the living testaments of how culturally rich we are as a country. Preservation of culture and heritage should be incorporated in the specialized IP education so that the chain of our rich cultural legacy will never be broken. This is how we show respect to the rights of the IPs who are very much Filipino citizens of this country just like us. In an article written by Mong Palatino in The Diplomat for its February 2015 issue, he said that there are about 5.5 million working children in the country and 2.9 million of them are working in hazardous industries like mines and plantations. Most of these children have stopped school. They usually work for 10 hours even up to 16 sometimes if the situation demands it. The Philippines is faced with the serious problem of child trafficking which is committed for the purpose of labor, usually, in factories and as domestic workers; for sexual exploitation and for illegal activities such as begging, drug trading and illegal adoption. Children of poor families in the rural areas are usually the target for child trafficking. Part of what the Constitution

demands to be protected are the children. The very fact that they are children makes them vulnerable to so many things which is why they would really need protecting. What has the government done to protect them from being abused by these business owners who use their fragile bodies for heavy labor? From these pedophiles who use their tender bodies for sexual gratification? There have been legislations ed to address this problem. RA 7610 is a law that prohibits all forms of child labor. It gives protection to children against exploitation and abuses. But is it really effective? Has it achieved its goal to actually protect the Filipino children? If we are to answer in the affirmative then the author of the above cited article might be saying something which isn’t true. If the plan of the government to combat child abuse is really working in full swing, then why are all these data on child abuse keep coming up? In my own belief, the government has failed to fulfill its obligation to protect. We cannot deny the fact that child abuse is still prevailing in the country. We have the laws but it doesn’t have the teeth. Child abs never get prosecuted and if ever they do, they easily get away with it. This is the sad reality. The present government may say they have fulfilled their obligations in ensuring that every citizen gets to enjoy basic human rights but I think otherwise. If their only claim is that they have reduced incidence of extra judicial killings, enforced disappearances and torture then they are completely blind or are intentionally trying to shut their eyes to the whole reality. The scope of human rights is beyond that. Housing conditions of the less fortunate are worse than ever. A lot of children are deprived of education because of poverty. There are incidences of harassment of women in the workplace. Pnoy during his first sona has promised a lot of improvements to human rights. But are there actual legislations that tend to cater to these problems? And if there are, are they really effective? In all fairness, this istration is better compared to its predecessor. But sometimes, he is often led to a wrong direction. Instead of fulfilling the promises he made, he got busy executing his vindictive plans and forgot that this country has more serious problems that needs most of his attention. The government turns the people’s attention away from these other human rights violation by simply showing how much he condemned his predecessor instead of forming orders that may eradicate or if not at least reduce said violations. He’s very proud in sharing to everyone all his achievements in of economic development but never had the guts to it that problems concerning human rights still exist. As long as these problems continue to plague our country, I will forever have the opinion that the status of human rights in the Philippines will need

more improvement. There is so much more to fulfill, so many more to be done in order that we may achieve improved conditions of human rights in the country. Every day is a struggle, every day is a battle. The government is the commander in chief, and we are soldiers ready to fight. If the government never makes the move, if it doesn’t create smart battle strategies, then we will definitely loose the war against human rights violations.

Human Rights in the Philippines: Seeing Beyond the Surface

An Essay on Human Rights Conditions In the Philippines

Submitted by: Czarina Mae Valencia 2B

Submitted to: Atty. Jonie Dabuco Professor, Human Rights Law

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements In Human Rights Law

October 19, 2015