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Friday, June 13, 2008
SC Chief: RP controlled by 'economic colonizers'
MANILA -- Chief Justice Reynato Puno of the Supreme Court (SC) said Thursday the country is still not truly free more than a century after Filipino revolutionaries declared independence from Spain.
Amid substantial economic gains attained by the country, Puno said the people remain shackled with poverty owing to "economic colonizers" who held the country in its vise grip.
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He said, in a speech marking the Philippines' 110th Independence Day, that modern-day "economic colonizers" are now "dictating how we should run our political and economic life." Puno was referring to wealthy nations that "craft regulations on world trade."
During Thursday's celebration at the Bonifacio National Monument in Caloocan City, Puno lashed at the foreign economic powers as present-day oppressors of Filipinos for making use of their money and influence to trample the social and economic rights of the people.
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Speaking in Tagalog, Puno said "economic colonizers" can be easily recognized because they are the reigning nations who offer their help to third world countries like the Philippines, in exchange for our natural resources to suit and advance their own economic agenda.
"While the foreign "political colonizers" have already gone and left us, they have been replaced by other foreign powers who we now call "economic colonizers." They are the foreigners who continue to suppress the social and economic rights of the people," he said.
Puno said some wealthy countries try to better their image by lending poor countries with money but at heavy interest.
He however said it is not only foreign investors that Filipinos should be wary of, adding that there are fellow Filipinos who operate a syndicate that prey on the poor by using their influence to monopolize a particular trade.
"As long as the spirit of Andres Bonifacio lives on in our hearts, no foreigner, no fellowman, no matter how wealthy or influential, could smother our freedom and stamp on our rights," said Puno.
He said civil, political, social, and economic rights, as well as right to environment -- the components of human rights -- are what "everyone needs to live in dignity."
The SC chief said "extralegal killings and enforced disappearances" continue to plague the country, and most of the victims are critics of the government, including journalists.
Turning to the country's economic situation, he said, "perhaps this is where the people have the least rights," citing widespread poverty.
"That is the reason why many of our countrymen leave the Philippines because of the uncertain future they see here in our country," he said.
"Poverty has been a big blow to our people's freedom," said Puno. "A person who has no home, no education, who has nothing to eat, and no clean water to drink can never say he is empowered in his own country."
Records of the National Statistics Office (NSO) showed that food prices have dramatically climbed to 14.3 percent in May compared to the 12 percent in April with rice prices rising up to 31.7 percent last month.
"For every time food prices climbed up to 10 percent, an average of 2.3 million Filipinos go under economically," he said.
Since his appointment as chief justice in December 2006, Puno has been praised for strong views on human rights not only in the Philippines but also elsewhere in Southeast Asia.
Last month, he criticized the Association of Southeast Asian Nations as "impotent" for its slow response to the Myanmar cyclone and surging rice prices, which he said could become a regional security threat. (Sunnex/AP)
For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Davao. (June 13, 2008 issue)
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