Reflections on the Human Condition - Api-fellowships.org

Local Government (DILG), has successfully established
BHRACs in 34.4% of the whole barangays by 2002.
At each BHRAC, a Barangay Human Rights Action
Officer (BHRAO) is deployed to receive complaints as
well as to conduct human rights education. BHRAOs
should be chosen among barangay residents, except
elective/appointive officials of the government. Such
qualification requirement was adopted in order to secure
BHRAO’s independent position to process human
rights violations. However, such qualification has not
been strictly observed and there were many cases that
barangay officials (such as captains, secretaries, and
treasures) were appointed as BHRAOs. CHR in Region
I then has been trying to rectify such misconduct in the
selection process of BHRAOs and promoting election
of BHRAOs in different barangays.
RESEARCH DESCRIPTION
Reasons for Selecting Region I (Ilocos Region)
Region I was selected as a research site among the 15
Regions. It is located at the northwest of Luzon Island
that covers a wide range coastal and mountain areas
(Fig.1). There are four provinces in the region—Ilocos
Norte, Ilocos Sur, La Union and Pangasinan. The
regional office of CHR is located in La Union. The total
population of 4,174,000 consists of different groups -
Ilocanos, Pangasinenses and indigenous peoples that
speak different languages; though Ilocano is widely
spoken as a common language in the whole region.
Former president Marcos hailed from Ilocos Norte.
Figure 1: Location of Regions in the Philippines.
Region I
San Femando,
La Union
Region III
San Femando,
Panpanga
Region IV
San Pablo City
Region VI
Iloilo City
Region VII
Cebu City
Region IX
Zamboanga City
Region II
Tuguegarao, Cagayan
CAR
Baguio City
Central O�ce/NCR
Quezon City
Region XII
Cotabatu City
Region V
Legaspi City
Region VIII
Tacloban City
Caraga
Butuan City
Region X
Cagayan de Oro City
Region XI
Davao City
SOCIAL JUSTICE, HUMAN RIGHTS AND CIVIL SOCIETY
Methodologies
377
Region I was chosen because it had put remarkable
efforts in community outreach. According to Table 2
that shows regional efforts in 2002, Region I has the
highest percentage of barangays with BHRACs (84.4%),
and those BHRACs conducted comparatively many
human rights education activities (the third highest
among regions). However, in contrast with such efforts,
the complaints of human rights violations accepted by
BHRACs were comparatively small in number. The
question naturally comes to mind why there is such a
gap. Finding the reasons for the gap may explain how
human rights concepts are accepted, as well as what are
the difficulties to infiltrate them in the communities.
The research was conducted through three different
approaches; they are:
1.
2.
3.
Document Analysis of the complaints: Past record
of docketed complaints (January 2003-March
2005) was analyzed in order to know the transition
of the number and contents of complaints brought
to CHR-Region I.
Interview of CHR-Region I officers: The officers
in charge of information and education activities
(three persons), and protection and monitoring
activities (four persons) were interviewed in order
to know their personal perceptions about the
acceptance of human rights in the region.
3 Focus Group Discussion (FGD) of Barangay
Human Rights Action Officers: BHRAOs were
invited to participate in one-day FGD to clarify
and discuss the issues and difficulties in promoting
and protecting human rights in their communities.
Sixteen BHRAOs attended the FGD on May 11th .
Findings of Secondary Data
Docketed Cases
Table 3 shows the transition of the number of cases
docketed and investigated in each quarter of the year
by CHR-Region I. The number of unresolved cases has
been increasing while new cases are constantly brought
to the office after 2004.
Ref lections on the Human Condition: Change, Conflict and Modernity
The Work of the 2004/2005 API Fellows