EDITORIAL - Weak, overburdened

Three decades after democracy was restored, extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances continue in the Philippines, perpetrated by state security forces, rebel groups and suspected vigilantes. This is the assessment in the 2015 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, released last week by the US State Department.

Blame for this sorry state of affairs has been pinned on certain factors, foremost of which is the fact that only a few human rights cases are investigated and prosecuted.

This in turn has been traced to a weak and overburdened criminal justice system, widespread official corruption and abuse of power, according to the State Department report. The Philippine military and police, the report noted, lacked the mechanisms to check the corruption and abuse, which include torture and unlawful arrests.

Weak prosecution and a low conviction rate have consistently ranked the Philippines among the top five worst countries in the Impunity Index drawn up by media freedom advocates. The country is also consistently ranked as one of the most dangerous and “murderous” for media workers. Of 185 killings targeting journalists and labor leaders in the country since 2001, only seven have led to convictions, according to the US report.

Aside from journalists, left-wing activists, judicial officials and local government leaders are targeted for assassinations, the State Department report noted. Threats to the safety of judges have aggravated the weakness of the criminal justice system.

The report does not yet include the killing of two farmers who protested in Kidapawan, North Cotabato over the lack of government assistance amid the drought induced by El Niño, and the subsequent detention of 81 rally participants, reportedly including pregnant women and children.

Washington has its share of human rights violations attributed to state forces. But the State Department report, as the title implies, assesses the rights situation in many countries, and each state is judged by how it deals with violations. In this the Philippines has shown one of the weakest responses.