RESPECTING HUMAN RIGHTS AND PROTECTING HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS : THE CHALLENGES TO ARMM

The Commission of Human Rights (CHR)’s  initial effort to look into the human rights situation in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) is most appreciated.   Its plan to set up a Commission on Human Rights in partnership with the reform agenda of the ARMM under the leadership of ARMM Governor Mujiv Hataman is worthy of support and cooperation from the human rights movement.  The task is daunting for the human rights concerns in ARMM are both grave and complex.

History and the day-to-day reality affirm that the dominance of warlordism in the ARMM is a brazen denial of operation of legal institutions, which supposedly is part of the whole gamut of  Philippine governmental functions. Without the operation of the legal system, impunity is committed in a very violent and wholesale manner over families and communities. There is no law to speak of except the law emanating from the barrel of the gun.  Warlords have no concept of human rights and   its promotion has no space in their unmitigated power-wielding governance. Warlordism only yields to two things – patronage for personal gains and/or  perpetuation of the culture of silence and impunity– both detrimental to the realization of long hoped for genuine peace and development for the Moro people.

The human rights violations to persons and communities are gross and widespread; however most are not documented and reported. Human Rights Defenders (HRDs) who speak against these concerns face risks to their personal and family’s security.   One current case is the persecution and arrest of Temogen “Cocoy” Tulawie who dared to shatter the culture of impunity engulfing the island of Sulu. He led the opposition to the plan to impose an ID system in Sulu and succeeded. If it was implemented, the ID system could have further curtailed civil liberties, legitimized warrantless search and arrest, and institutionalized discriminatory religious profiling all under the guise of the “war against terror”.  Cocoy challenged Gov. Sakur Tan in the Supreme Court on the latter’s Proclamation of a State of Emergency last March 31, 2009. Cocoy organized fact-finding missions which exposed  the local government’s culpability by virtue of omission in relation to the rise of cases of gang rapes and sexual violence against women in Sulu.

The fabricated charges against Cocoy Tulawie led to Cocoy’s temporary separation from his family and the Tausug people. Believing he has no chance of being tried fairly in Jolo, Cocoy transferred residence while waiting for the Supreme Court decision on his motion for transfer of venue of trial to Davao.

Cocoy considered to voluntarily give himself up after the Supreme Court granted his request for transfer of venue on June 13, 2011. But he was not in hiding and was living normally in Davao City. Cocoy Tulawie is presently detained in Davao City. But he is not totally secured there.

As a right start, the CHR should push for the speedy trial of Cocoy Tulawie and his immediate  release from jail. And more importantly, if it is  serious  in understanding the gravity of the human rights situation in the ARMM, it should put premium in linking up with human rights victims and with people’s organizations, institutions and Human Rights Defenders whose partisanship for the human rights of ordinary people has been proven in the life and death struggle in the provinces. For them to continue to survive is a feat by itself.

It is about time to decisively confront the human rights problem in the ARMM.  The individual and collective rights of the settlers, indigenous and the Moro people have long been trampled upon by the warlords and the military.

Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates (PAHRA),

Free Cocoy Tulawie Movement,

Kilusan para sa Pambansang Demokrasya(KPD)

March 5, 2012