Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  That is the very distressing part because during the time of Arroyo, many members of the church were victims of extrajudicial killings, but under the current dispensation, these continue.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Yes. Out of the 114 victims of extrajudicial killings, five are members of a church of various denominations. The normal tendency of church people is to speak out on behalf of their flock, and there seems to be resentment on the part of public officials and the military for advoc

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I have to admit that our party, which suffered 157 dead during the time of Arroyo, was not the victim of extrajudicial killings directly, but harassment of our members in the provinces does continue. There are still cases pending before the courts against members of Parliaments l

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I don't know how the process in Parliament goes, but a resolution or report expressing concern on these escalating human rights conditions would be very well taken. I'm sure it would have an impact, and people would tell the military to lay off a little if these expressions of su

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Actually, I was very careful in my presentation. I said “alleged”, because I have to admit honestly that I have no personal knowledge, and I don't think it is very easy to gain personal knowledge of whether there is direct hiring. That is why probably a Canadian study mission wou

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Our government has an economic strategy of luring foreign investors. That has been the economic strategy since the martial days of Marcos. Because of that, our government has always been sensitive to expressions of concern by the international community. In fact, I mentioned in m

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Actually, to be light about this, sometimes it's nice that during budgetary deliberations members of the executive are forced to cooperate with Parliament. After all, we are the ones who approve their budget. In one of those budgetary hearings, I was able to ask them about the e

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  The constitution itself actually looks with disdain on paramilitary groups, because of our experience with the Marcos government before. In the constitution there is a discouragement of the use of a paramilitary force, which was in fact the main criticism when the President signe

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Yes.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Thank you for that question. I would immediately take out the Abu Sayyaf. For me, at least, it has no political ideology to speak of. It is a group of bandits. However, with two other rebel groups, the government actually has signed agreements or treaties. With the NDF, the go

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Thank you. On behalf of my party and the Filipino people, I would like to thank the subcommittee for giving us the opportunity to share some insights on the Philippine situation today. I was informed that the subcommittee has met several Filipino groups since 2007 on various i