What gives?

Will Napoles be a state witness and get away with all her ‘pork scam’? Before the Department of Justice releases her from the Correctional Institute for Women, they better make everything clear with the public. Will she be acquitted after turning into a state witness? Abangan!

* * *

Last week, we were taken aback by the ‘unofficial’ presence of United Nations Special Rapporteur Agnes Callamard. The only ones not surprise were those lawyers who invited her for the forum they organized at the University of the Philippines.

Her trip coincided with the Philippine delegation’s visit to Geneva. There they presented the human rights situation in the country before the United Nations Human Rights Council and attended the Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR). Did Callamard deliberately miss the meeting or was it planned? Cayetano who led the team in Geneva complained to the UN body of Callamard’s partiality stating that “Any Filipino who would see her critical tweets and statements against the government would not think that she was impartial and fair.” What is her story? Why is she complicating the situation? Is she an ‘official’ or an ‘unofficial’ representative of the UN? If the UN sends a rapporteur to check on the country’s human rights violations, he or she better be an honorable, legitimate and principled one.

The United Nations seems to have a fetish over the human rights activities in the country. Why are they so plastered on the Philippines? There are other countries around the world who have worse cases. What’s the big deal?

My friend, Anthony Belzunce and I had a serious discussion on human rights and how the UN is handling the issue. The Philippine government, managing the affairs of its sovereign nation cannot avoid being defensive regarding ill-informed critiques. Matters of culture and happenings in the nation is so unique to people living here in this country to be simply assessed by foreign visitors having a different outlook, comprehension and standard of life not to mention being ill-informed.

The UN knows how hard the War on Drugs has infiltrated the lives of all nations around the world. Back in the ’60s and ’70s, the organization had tried so many ways and measures amounting to billions of dollars to end the drug problem. Sadly, they failed. Many lives were lost in the War on Drugs. And so, the drug problem all over the world became worse as the years went by, with organizations such as the UN unable to find the right solution.

Today, the UN has resorted to compromise solutions like legalizing the use of drugs in some countries just to make a headway in resolving the drug problem. Not to mention the damages of illegal drug use like schizophrenia among others and the burden these users cause not only to the government but also to society with their criminal acts, and the inability to work for a living.

These are not new revelations. Yet, the UN delegates seem not to accept these realities. As a matter of fact, together with other international entities, they have focused their undivided attention on the new government of President Duterte, condemning his determination to hurdle all obstacles that may come his way in his fight against drugs in the country.

This action can be construed as discriminatory. Imagine, putting a small nation like the Philippines on center stage to be criticize for its war on drugs. Mexico, Guatemala, Central America, South America, Australia, USA, and Europe have the same drug problems. Some even have worst Human Rights violations like India and the problem on child prostitution. What did the UN do? Was the drug problem in these countries ever solved? Why capitalize on the weaknesses of our country – corrupt leaders who have paved the way for famous drug cartels to enter our shores. And now, the very same people are shouting for justice, human rights, etc. etc.! Unbelievable!

Long before President Duterte, the Philippines has already been known for senseless and the so-called extrajudicial killings. Drug lords have been on the loose killing people left and right to protect their business, private armies go trigger-happy before and during election time and bandits have even beheaded priests and foreign visitors. Have you forgotten the 2009 Maguindanao massacre also known as the Ampatuan massacre triggered by the greed for power between the Ampatuans and the Mangudadatus? Fifty-eight people were killed in one killing-spree including 34 journalists. What about the Mamasapano incident? What about the hundreds or maybe thousands of children working in the mines? What about the victims of human trafficking? Don’t they deserve attention too? Why are these so-called human rights advocates so adamant in their crusade to remove the Philippine president? This has never happened before? Is a cover up happening somewhere? Or maybe bribery to a larger extent?

As my friend and I further analyzed what has been happening recently, we realized that the destabilization agenda of the Philippine elite, oligarchs and questionable corrupt politicians who are all conniving, conspiring and lobbying against the government with unsubstantiated and exaggerated innuendos like extra judicial killings have caught the attention of the international media and UN Human Rights agencies.

The request of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) to send a UN Rapporteur to investigate Human Rights abuses in the Philippines must be carefully thought of. Perhaps a counter offer can be considered. The conditions being that representative delegates (an unbiased group) from specific countries will visit the Philippines accompanied by unbiased Filipinos to investigate firsthand the true happenings and situations in the country. Delegates from Australia, UK, Scandinavia, France, Germany and Japan should be a better source of proper assessment rather than a singular possible biased UN Rapporteur.

We need to fight for our rights as a sovereign nation. Today, there is so much distrust in government caused by biased reports, all for the reason of destabilizing the government. By the way, some of the data presented on EJK are from events that happened before President Duterte took office. Let’s be careful and more discerning.

The irony behind the United Nations Human Rights Council whose job is to promote universal respect and protection for human rights around the world is that some of its member-states are the worst human rights violators in the world. So, what gives?