of the Philippines the criminal justice system is - Article 2

authority, that those found responsible are prosecuted.” It further said
that, “The State party should ensure that its legislation gives full effect to
the rights recognized in the Covenant and that domestic law is
harmonized”.
Despite these clear recommendations, torture is not yet a crime in the
Philippines, and there has been little effort to enact an enabling law that
would make it so. Similarly, the various monitoring committees and
quasi-judicial bodies established ostensibly to investigate human rights
violations have few powers and are generally ineffective. As a result, the
recognition given to international human rights standards in Article III
of the 1987 Philippine Constitution has little significance. Although an
integral part of the constitutional basis of the country, in the absence of
measures for implementation it has been trivialised.
In January 2005 Executive Order 404 established a Monitoring Committee
on Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law. Section 2
stipulates that the Committee will work closely with the national
Commission on Human Rights to investigate and monitor human rights
violations in compliance with international treaty obligations. While
apparently a step towards human rights protection, there is little evidence
of work by the committee so far. The general public of the Philippines
remains in the dark about what the committee has done, despite it being
required to “provide regular updates to concerned units and agencies of
the Government, as well as civil society groups and other entities”.
The making of grand claims about the improved effectiveness of law
enforcement agencies will not impress anyone familiar with the real
situation in the Philippines. In fact, the effect will only be to raise more
doubts among the victims of crime and rights violations about the
sincerity of the authorities in tackling the deep flaws in the country’s
policing and judicial system. Instead of pretending that things are getting
better, the government of the Philippines would obtain far greater
credibility by recognising the gravity of this situation and taking
determined steps to end the impunity that murderers and other serious
criminals, particularly those in the police and other security forces,
continue to enjoy.
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VICTIMS:
1. William Tadena (killed)
2. Carlos Barsolaso
(wounded)
3. Charlie Gabriel
(wounded)
INCIDENT: Killing
ALLEGED PERPETRATORS:
Two unidentified gunmen
DATE: 13 March 2005
AHRC UP-026-2005
Fr. William Tadena: Another IFI priest killed
Fr. William Tadena, a priest of the Iglesia Filipina
Independiente, was shot repeatedly by two unidentified armed
men riding on a red Yamaha motorcycle without registration
plates while travelling by jeep towards Victoria, Tarlac, after mass
at a plaza in Barangay Guevarra, La Paz, Tarlac on 13 March
2005.
Fr. Tadena died of multiple gun shot wounds to his head and
torso. He was with three companions at the time: two of them,
Carlos Barsolaso (38) and Charlie Gabriel (24), were wounded.
Barsolaso was hit in the head and seriously injured while Gabriel
was hit in his right leg. The third, Ervina Domingo (20), was
unharmed.
Fr. Allan & Aileen Caparro: Shot down on highway
Fr. Allan Caparro (40) and his wife Aileen (34) were shot by
unidentified motorcycle-riding gunmen at around 6:30pm on 18
February 2005 as they were returning from a three-day meeting
called for by the Biliran-Leyte-Samar Diocese of the Iglesia
Filipina Indepiendente (IFI) church.
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article 2 • February 2007 Vol. 6, No. 1