Human rights advocates lament 'weak' justice system

HUMAN Rights advocates acknowledged that the justice system in the country is still slow, however, with the ongoing reports of human rights violations, it will still remain an important establishment to resort to.

Ritz Lee Santos III, convenor from Balaod Mindanao for Northern Mindanao and Caraga regions, admitted that despite the country is having a "weak" judicial process, "that's all that we have" for now.

"There are those who have less in life and still no access to the law in this current system," he said, adding that their group has continued to call for reforms in the judiciary.

"We encouraged our leaders to reform the justice system but sometimes it's them who destroy the legal institutions," he said.

Balaod Mindanao was one of the 20 other human rights groups based in Mindanao to have gathered in Cagayan de Oro City on August 10, for a "historic" gathering to launch iDefend Mindanaw, a human rights movement, "that provides platform to empower the people to resist state repression and to address its root causes with the vision of establishing rights-based governance and sustainable development."

The collective group claimed that there were 40 individuals working in different human rights organizations across Mindanao who gathered in the city to participate in a workshop on monitoring, documentation, and reporting of human rights violation cases.

Also one who joined the movement was Professor Dalomabi Lao Bula, who, along with her in-displaced survivors, has been critical to the handling of state forces during and after the Marawi City siege last year.

"There were more civilian deaths than ISIS (Maute terrorists), because they (government troops) said that there were around 50-60 dead ISIS members and yet they also declared that there were more than 900 deaths when the siege happened," she said.

iDefend Mindanaw also called for the removal of Martial Law in Mindanao, citing that there are people in Mindanao, who are not in favor of its implementation.

Coincidentally, the Commission on Human Rights had booked an event on the same hotel venue where iDefend conducted its activity, however it was said that both groups have separate events in separate function rooms.