of the Philippines the criminal justice system is - Article 2

sufficiently adept at creating lawlessness and putting itself to
shame. In a letter to the Asian Human Rights Commission of 18
October 2006 he stated that while his department too is “anxious
to put a stop to this situation” he went on to make baseless and
profoundly disturbing comments to the effect that complainants
“may themselves be guilty of such extra-judicial killings” and for
this purpose “are promptly pointing their fingers and eagerly
complaining the loudest against the government”. At the end of
his letter, Gonzalez could not help but take a stab at the
commission directly:
It appears from your letter that you know a lot more of our country than
other non-Filipinos and feel comfortable in ‘urging’ us to do your
bidding. Interference from foreign nationals are things [sic] we can do
without.
That Secretary Gonzalez feels safe in making open
presumptions about the guilt or innocence of persons lodging
criminal complaints and indicating that the extent of assistance
given by his department depends upon what conclusions are
drawn by its officers as to the merits of the complainant rather
than the complaint speaks volumes about the rot at all levels of
the criminal justice system of the Philippines. The making of
veiled threats against groups abroad expressing legitimate and
serious concern about the inability of his department to do
anything to address grave abuses of human rights is also
remarkable, not least of all in view of the country’s membership
on the UN Human Rights Council, a seat which it sought on the
basis of supposed compliance with international standards and
cooperation with international bodies. As the secretary is also
chairman of the Presidential Committee on Human Rights, which
has among its responsibilities to ensure that the government
policy is in keeping with human rights principles—a job that he
also seems to be doing particularly badly—the secretary must be
aware of the government’s treaty obligations, yet he appears to
hold them in very low regard.
“
interference
from foreign
nationals...
we can do
without....
”
—Justice Secretary
Raul Gonzalez
Labelling “enemies”
In April 2005 the Intelligence Services of the Armed Forces of
the Philippines produced a PowerPoint presentation entitled
“Knowing the Enemy: Are we missing the point?”, which included
a list of organisations and persons—among them human rights
and labour groups, religious organisations, media institutions,
political parties and persons critical of the government—who are
“influenced by communists”. The presentation was distributed
on compact disc and was shown to villagers and otherwise used
in communities where the military was conducting so-called
civilian-military operations.
The “Knowing the Enemy” presentation followed the release
of a book by the former chief of Northern Luzon Command,
Lieutenant General Romeo Dominguez (retired) entitled, The
Trinity of War, in which he also identified specific individuals
and organizations as sympathizers, supporters, if not outright
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