There
is a prevailing Filipino culture called tingi
or retail and this is due to our financial incapacity to buy items or
products by wholesale. Majority of the consumers can only afford to buy small packs of basic
items for our daily needs from toothpaste to charcoal. This is how the masses
survive the day.
Well,
generally the term ‘human rights’ means
a broad spectrum of rights ranging from right to life to the right to a
cultural identity. They are basic pre-conditions for a dignified human
existence. In a nutshell, there is the civil and political rights on one
hand, and economic, social and cultural rights on the other. Allow me to stop
at this point for I do not intend here to give you a course on human rights or HR.
I’ll just allow you, my dear reader, to self-study the matter and besides, we
Filipinos are yet to arrive on a national consensus on the categorisations and
classification, concepts and principles and theory and praxis of HR. The keyboards are burning and the so-called internet warriors coming
from different quarter debate over theories and practice of human rights in the
country.
HR
issues are reduced to swords or guillotines aimed at annihilating their critics
or political rivals instead of being an instrument aimed at uplifting human dignity.
In doing so, we end up valuing personalities than the sanctity of HR tenets and
the inviolability and our basic rights as individuals and as peoples. This way of “enlightenment”
on HR, HR is reduced to mere instruments of politicking and political stunts.
Indeed, our hazy view of HR is manifested by our enduring, hotly contested arguments
or disputes about it, especially when Rodrigo R. Duterte was voted to power by
16 million Filipinos last May.
It
is apparent that with the explosion of the summary execution of drug suspects by
agents of the government is a blatant violation of the victims’ constitutional
rights enshrined in the Bill of Rights. The victims, as some of the HR groups
claim, were not given due process therefore their civil and political rights
were violated, thus the term extra-judicial killings or EJKs.
On
the other hand, this administration’s adherence to economic, social and
cultural rights is showing a commendable start. For instance, the decisive
action of Agrarian Reform Sec. Rafael Mariano distributing thousand hectares of
lands which was only partially covered during BS Aquino III’s previous
administration. Another is DSWDs giving livelihood jobs and organizing of the
Conditional Cash Transfer or the 4Ps beneficiaries into cooperatives as a more
permanent measure to alleviate poverty than giving dole-outs like cash
allocations made possible by DSWD Sec. Judy Taguiwalo, to cite just two. Though
these are initiatives of the progressives in the Duterte cabinet, these
praiseworthy actions can also be traced to the president.
Jerbert
Briola, a friend of mine, forwarded me a PowerPoint presentation of political
analyst Ramon Casiple apparently from a lecture rendered before group of HR
advocates days after the inauguration of President Duterte. I will be going to
share it to you later. Casiple, by the way, was our guest speaker in the
national assembly of an HR network where I formerly belong. The event was held
in Quezon City last August 25, 2011. One of Casiple’s slides sent to me by
Jerbert reads: “The Duterte
administration will have a mixed human rights record. His anti-crime and
anti-drug campaign is spawning vigilantism and extra-judicial killings by the
police.” On the other hand, he stressed, “His [the president’s] social
reform agenda supports many human rights demands and advocacy.” True
enough, approaching the100th day of his presidency, Duterte’s human
rights record is a mixture of good and bad. More than ever, according to
Casiple, it is now high time for the HR advocates to exercise
vigilance, undertake popular education on human rights, and independently
mobilize support based on specific HR issues therefore, revitalize
the HR movement.
Whether
they relate to civil, cultural, economic, political or social issues, human
rights are inherent to the dignity of every human person. Consequently, all
human rights have equal status, and cannot be positioned in a hierarchical
order, like what the HR educators have taught. Denial of one right invariably
impedes enjoyment of other rights. Thus, the right of everyone to due process
cannot be compromised at the expense of the right to an adequate standard of
living.
When
human right is retailed, the essence of human being is degraded wholesale…
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(Photo: GMA
Network)
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