Sunday, July 29, 2007 Palace body rues uncooperative witnesses in extrajudicial slays
OF THE 60 murder cases involving militants and journalists that have already been filed in court since 2001, only four of them have been resolved due to the lack or non-cooperation from witnesses.
Presidential Human Rights Committee (PHRC) Executive Director Cecilia Quisumbing said the problem stresses the urgency of strengthening the witness protection program to achieve convictions.
President Gloria Macagapal-Arroyo earlier urged Congress in her seventh State of the Nation Address (Sona) last July 23 to pass laws imposing harsher penalties for political killings, which she said has already stained “our democratic record.”
Arroyo identified such bills as: protection of witnesses from lawbreakers and law enforcers; a law guaranteeing swift justice from more empowered special courts; a law imposing harsher penalties for political killings; and a law reserving the harshest penalties for the rogue elements in the uniformed services.
The President has also committed to provide more funds for the witness protection program under the Department of Justice (DOJ) to strengthen and improve the program and eventually encourage more witnesses to come out and testify.
Quisumbing, meanwhile, said all the 60 cases are tried or are still being tried in various Regional Trial Courts (RTCs) as they were filed before the Supreme Court (SC) had appointed special courts for the trial of unexplained or extrajudicial killings.
Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, chairman of the PHRC, said they would request the Supreme Court (SC) to review the status of the RTCs that are handling the 56 pending cases and if they could be turned into ad hoc special courts to expedite procedures.
Ermita added that with the creation of special courts, they are hoping to see more convictions soon.
Commission on Human Rights (CHR) chairperson Purificacion Qusumbing said the problem involving the low conviction of perpetrators of extrajudicial killings should prompt authorities to do better in resolving these cases, including compliance to President Arroyo’s order to resolve the murder.
She added that based on their data, only 48 cases had been filed and only one had been resolved by the court, contrary to the data of the PHRC which was based on the Task Force Usig report.
“(But) the CHR will continue to monitor government progress and is wiling to share information from this database under conditions of independence and confidentiality,” she added.
Arroyo said these figures” of the HRC however showed that law enforcers, prosecutors and the judiciary “have been doing their jobs all along.” (JMR/Sunnex)
