The Bangsamoro and human rights

By Fernando R. Cabigao Jr.

CONGRESS has suspended deliberations on the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) but the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) and the Regional Human Rights Commission of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (RHRC-ARMM) have refused to relax their bid for the creation of a Bangsamoro Human Rights Commission (BHRC) under the BBL.

In a forum titled “Institutionalizing Human Rights Promotion and Protection in the Bangsamoro Basic Law” held Monday, February 16, at the Ateneo Rockwell Campus, RHRC-ARMM Chairperson Algamar Latiph said the creation of the BHRC will help ensure that the human rights of the Moro people are well protected.

“ARMM is a conflict area. The people must be assured that their basic human rights will not be violated. Therefore, there is a need for human rights institution to be with us,” Latiph stressed.

The Technical Working Group of the House Ad Hoc Committee on BBL has deleted, for supposed reason of unconstitutionality, Section 7, Article 9 of the proposed BBL (H.B. No. 4994), which mandates the creation of an independent and impartial BHRC under the Bangsamoro.

Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez, chair of the Ad Hoc Committee, has been saying that the delegation of duties of constitutional bodies to another agency is problematic and that the 1987 Constitution only allows one Commission on Human Rights.

“ARMM is a conflict area. The people must be assured that their basic human rights will not be violated. Therefore, there is a need for human rights institution to be with us.” – RHRC-ARMM Chairperson Algamar Latiph | PCIJ File Photo

According to Latiph, the Moro people are generally subject to heightened vulnerability for various reasons, including cultural prejudices and situations of armed conflict, thus the need to protect their human rights.

From July 12, 2012 to October 2013, an average of 993 people per day were forced to leave their homes, at an average of 15 days per person, to avoid the effects of armed conflict, he added.

Latest data from the Humanitarian Emergency Action Response Team (HEART) of the ARMM also show that more than 6,000 residents of Mamasapano town have fled their homes after the January 25, 2015 clash between the Philippine National Police-Special Action Force and armed groups in the area.

An ongoing clash between the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) has prompted hundreds of families in Pikit, North Cotabato to flee their homes this week.

If included in the BBL, the BHRC will replace the current RHRC, an agency under the ARMM that is independent from the CHR. The RHRC was created on June 26, 2012. Its regional office in Cotabato City has established human rights action centers in several ARMM provinces. Thus far, it has investigated and provided legal assistance to 2,860 human rights cases.

CHR Chairperson Loreta Ann Rosales voiced support for the creation of the BHRC, saying that the 1987 Constitution does not preclude the creation of other human rights institutions. In fact, she said, it was the CHR that instigated the creation of the RHRC-ARMM. “The CHR and the BHRC can coexist and work with each other.”

“With the increasing number of human rights violations across the country and the limited staff of the Commission, the CHR needs all the help it can get in investigating these violations,” Rosales said, adding that the “CHR only has regional presence but it doesn’t have the strength to investigate human rights violations due to its limited staff.

For her part, lawyer Raissa Jajurie, a member of the Bangsamoro Transition Commission (BTC), said the overlapping functions of CHR and BHRC do not mean that the CHR is inefficient. Rather, she said, these reflect the autonomy of the Bangsamoro.

“The idea is autonomy,” said Jajurie.

Jose Luis Martin Gascon, undersecretary in the Office of the Presidential Adviser on Political Affairs and a member of the 1987 Constitutional Commission, affirmed Rosales’s position, stressing that it is possible to have a national human rights institution (NHRI) and sublevel human rights institutions.

Both the Senate and the House of Representatives have suspended deliberations on the proposed BBL following the clash between the PNP-SAF and armed groups, including the MILF and BIFF, in Mamasapano, Maguindanao on Jan. 25, 2015. Forty-four SAF troopers, 18 MILF fighters, and five civilians were killed in the firefight, apart from scores more injured. – PCIJ, February 2015