Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  In my case, I was brought from camp to camp, but they were not regular detention centres. We were tortured there. We were incommunicado there. They would not let any of my visitors come in. Why don't they bring us to the regular detention centre right away? But that is where they do all these tortures and where all these human rights violations are happening.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Actually, all of those human rights violations, the extrajudicial killings, that we have presented here are perpetrated by state actors. There are many things we have made in terms of documentations wherein the state actors are the ones who are responsible. The problem is that there's so much crime committed but no criminals are found.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  It would really be good if the courts would function well, but in the Philippines right now the courts do not function well. It takes so long. It is snail-paced to get justice from the courts. Whether they are independent is a good question, because in many cases you don't get justice.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  The United Nations actually can help very much, as with what the rapporteur on extrajudicial killing, Philip Alston, did. But there are many cases now where the observers are not even allowed to go to the Philippines to see what's really happening. We have moved for that also in the United Nations Human Rights Council.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I'm very sorry; the whole justice system in the Philippines is so snail-paced that I don't believe I could get justice from them.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  That's what I thought and he thought. Maybe it would be better not to enter into that because it would take so much time and take so much of my effort and everything, yet I wouldn’t get justice.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  My lawyer asked me if I wanted to go to court to file my case. I said that I spent six years in prison and it took so long for me to get justice. If I went to court again, I still don't believe I would get justice because I think it takes so long for justice to be given to us. So I told him I would not go to court.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Good afternoon, everyone. Honourable members of the Canadian House of Commons subcommittee on human rights, we are happy to be here because we want to tell you our stories and concerns about the Philippines. I am Angelina Bisuña-Ipong, a former political prisoner. I am from a peasant family.