Impunity of perpetrators and lack of serious effort at investigation and prosecution are two major factors for the unabated political killings in the country.
These were pointed out by Atty. Jose Midas Marquez, spokesperson of the Supreme Court, and Atty. Neri Colmenares, spokesperson of the lawyers’ group Counsels for the Defense of Civil Liberties, at the forum held at the Wrocklage Yard of the University of San Carlos (USC) yesterday (
The forum themed, ‘Political Killings: Effects on the Judicial System’, was attended by students and faculty of the departments of Sociology and Anthropology, Political Science, and Economics, as well as lawyers, religious, human rights advocates, and law students from other universities.
The organizers with Atty. Jose Midas Marquez, Spokesperson of the Supreme Court and Atty. Neri Colmenares, Spokesperson, CODAL.
Atty. Marquez said the judiciary is addressing the problems by working on the recommendations identified in the Supreme Court Summit on Extra-Judicial Killings last month. These are the inclusion in the rules of court of the remedy of Writ of Amparo, which encompasses the demand to avail of the bill of rights, and the strengthening of the witness protection program, among others.
Atty. Colmenares however cautioned that good intentions of the Supreme Court and dedication of human rights lawyers and advocates will not be enough without full public support and participation especially when government security forces are suspected to be involved.
The forum, which was co-sponsored by the
It strived to: 1) heighten awareness on the state of political killings; 2) familiarize participants on the strategies employed to abate the problems related to political killings; and 3) provide a venue to discuss possible legislative and judiciary solutions to end all political killings.
Author: contributed by Dennis Abarrientos
18 / August / 2007
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