THE Commission on Human Rights (CHR) was created by the Constitution as an independent body to investigate "all forms of human rights violations involving civil and political rights." It aims to "protect human rights of all persons" within the Philippines and Filipinos residing abroad.
That must include violations against persons working for the state, such as police officers and soldiers.
President Duterte in Tacloban City last Aug. 29 said two policemen die each day in his campaign against illegal drugs. CHR counts the bodies of slain drug traffickers but, he said, "what about the (police) officers who have been decapitated? I haven't heard from CHR. You can see their bigotry."
CHR's silence on attacks from criminals and rebels has to be explained.
CHR must think that its duty is to watch the state's abuses and excesses against citizens. It assumes that only the state can commit torture, disappearances and killings without due process.
The one-sided view should've been junked when the Constitution was drafted in 1987. As early as the 70s, human rights practitioners saw that states were not the only "actors who dirtied their hands" in human rights crimes. There are paramilitary forces, rebel groups and crime gangs.
True, the state is not powerless against other violators. It has, or should have, means and power to enforce peace and order. It can go, as it should, after rebels, bandits and other criminals who kill cops and soldiers. It doesn't need CHR which doesn't have guns, only a megaphone.
Any violation
But what the political leaders would like from CHR is for it to condemn any violation of human rights, whoever commits it, including violence against agents of the state.
CHR's error or omission though doesn't justify state officials resisting the agency's constitutional duty. It's CHR peoples work, let them "mind" it.
(paseares@gmail.com)