The Eastern Samar Community Blog

PCIJ’s Karol Ilagan writes that human rights in the Philippines is still a work in progress.

Human Rights is only a “work in progress” because the “human duty” to make it work is not yet imbibed by majority of our people also. Rights only work in a society where the people are aware of them and is ready to assert and fight for them. This is the basic “human duty” which Pinoys ignore. What do I mean with “human duty”? “Human duty” is that basic duty to fight for one’s rights. Without the courage to fulfill one’s “human duty” then there will be no full enjoyment of our human rights.

What hinders our people from fulfilling their sacred “human duty”?

Though there are already a lot of groups and organization out there which try their best to awaken the people about their “human rights” most of us are still unconcerned. So many of us seem to be disinterested about human rights – unless they are directly affected by a violation. It is one of the bad traits of us Pinoys. A possible murder happened once in our place and it was reported as suicide. Nobody cared to investigate about what really happened as nobody filed a complaint.

Another important problem is that even the justice system is so costly. How can one person fulfill his “human duty” to assert his human rights when he doesn’t have a centavo to spend for litigations? One may say that the government provides an attorney in case a person doesn’t have the money to get one, but how much enthusiasm such an attorney could provide the poor client when the the case involves someone who has the power to send him to limbo? One lawyer friend years ago shared that he doesn’t have much drive to fulfill his duties and sometimes tells his clients to just accept for any form of settlement even when such is not fair enough just to end the case.

Also, so many of us are so much dependent on our “political lords”. So many of us are at the mercy of these political “masters” that any attempt to assert our “human rights” could possibly mean hunger, loss of work, and even death (through so many means including perhaps extrajudicial killing). And why we are so dependent on these political masters? Because every election time so many of us so eagerly sell their votes, or vote because of relationships (kaanak, kamag-anak, kumpare o kumare, kaibigan, kakilala, kapuso, kabarkada, kaklase, ka-ano pa man), occupation (boss, asawa ni boss, magulang o anak ni boss, etc), debt of gratitude (gave assistance when we were sick as if the assistance was a personal favor and not a mandate of office, gave some money for transpo of a sick relative as if – and especially if – the money came from the politician’s wallet, hired a son, daughter, or parent as casual employee as if the wage was a personal expense of the official), and many more.

There are other factors which make many of our people from fulfilling their sacred “human duty” hence they could not enjoy their human rights. And it is such a very disturbing reality. The answer to our problem is to educate the people about their sacred “human duty” to assert their human rights. Unless we could educate the people about their “human duty” then we could not expect for them to fully fight for their human rights.

Aside from educating the people about their sacred “human duty” there must also be the necessary support system to ensure that when they fulfill their “human duty” to assert the enjoyment of their human rights they shall not be left hanging in the air. It is a fact and a sad reality in this country that due to extreme poverty, many people could not afford to fight for their rights – especially when the ‘security’ of the state is involved or when ‘powerful people’ are affected. Therefore without the necessary protection for those who wish to fulfill their “human duty” to enjoy their human rights, the status of human rights in this country willl never really improve.