of the Philippines the criminal justice system is - Article 2

Bishop Ramento also openly opposed Arroyo’s attempts to
amend the country’s constitution and change its political
structure from a presidential to a parliamentary model of
government.
In addition to being the bishop of Tarlac Diocese, Bishop
Ramento was the chairman of the IFI’s Supreme Council of
Bishops and a co-chairperson of the Ecumenical Bishops’ Forum,
a fellowship of bishops of the Roman Catholic Church. He also
was the chairman of the National Council of Churches of the
Philippines (NCCP), and from 1993 to 1999 he served as the Obsipo
Maximo IX, the IFI’s spiritual head, chief pastor and chief
executive officer.
Outside of his formal church work, Bishop Ramento served as
a convener of Pilgrims for Peace and was also a provincial leader
of the human rights group Karapatan. He was the chairperson of
the board of the Workers’ Assistance Centre, a labour group in
Rosario, Cavite Province and he had strongly supported the farm
workers of Hacienda Luisita who staged a strike that was
violently suppressed by the police and military in November 2004,
resulting in the deaths of seven.
The AHRC released a statement on the occasion of the bishop’s
killing, which read in part:
The violent silencing of this moral voice in the Philippines indicates that
either the perpetrators have no fear of being apprehended by the police
or that agents of the state are, indeed, the perpetrators. The unwillingness
or inability of the Philippine government to seriously respond to the
hundreds of killings that have occurred in the Philippines since Arroyo
came to power in 2001 has spawned a climate of impunity in the country.
The people now live in fear, not the perpetrators of these violent acts.
Moreover, the failure of the Arroyo government to take adequate steps
to eradicate the country’s extrajudicial killings, which Karapatan states
is at least 763 deaths since 2001, is a repudiation of the Philippine
government’s international obligation to protect the lives of its citizens.
Lastly, the killing of Bishop Ramento, a public critic of the government
as previously noted, illustrates the lack of criticism permissible by the
government. This abhorrence of criticism indicates the unhealthy state
of democracy in the Philippines. Democracy is a political system based
on respect for human rights and the protection of everyone’s right to
voice their views. A government that does not defend its people’s rights,
that, indeed, does not defend the people’s most fundamental right of
all—its right to life—is a government that cannot maintain the trust of
its people and can no longer claim that it represents its people. In short,
it can no longer claim that it is a democratic government.
If the Arroyo government wishes to reclaim any pretence of legitimacy,
it must take immediate action to bring to justice those who have violently
taken the life of Bishop Alberto Ramento as well as hundreds of other
unresolved extrajudicial killings in the country. If alive, Bishop Ramento
would have uttered the same statement.
article 2 • February 2007 Vol. 6, No. 1 45