THE ghosts of extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances have been haunting the Philippines since the Marcos era. And yet, two branches of the government – the executive and the legislative – have not formulated effective rules and standards to help solve the problem on human rights cases.
Of the three branches of government, the judiciary has a limited power. Unlike the executive, it has no control over the military and any law enforcement agencies. Unlike the legislative, it has no power to conduct investigations and formulate laws. In fact, they will have to rely on the cases and evidence presented to them to do their function.
However, despite its limited power, the Supreme Court had taken the initiative to find solutions to the spate of killings. One was the writ of amparo introduced in 2007.
“The people’s sense of shock has been anaesthetized by the escalation of the killings and disappearances despite the size of the space given to them by the print media.” This was how then SC Chief Justice Reynato Puno observed. Nevertheless, it is not an excuse for the government – the President, senators and congressmen – not to act on this problem.
Puno said “human rights cases are low profile especially when they affect the marginalized, or people whose existence some would hardly recognize or worse, people dismiss as invisibles of society.” This may be the reason why our elected officials appear to be “imperturbable” with the thousands of extrajudicial slayings and desaparecidos cases. They are more interested in high-profile issues or those with greater impact on the larger number of their constituents.
But we must remember this: While the issue only affects the marginalized, extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances are the same threat for everyone.
