Op-ed in the Inquirer on Special Rapporteur’s report

Ibarra M. Gutierrez III, “The Alston Report: the challenge to gov’t“, The Inquirer, 1 December 2007, concludes:

Similarly, as the report is concerned with the larger issue of state compliance, it should not be characterized in the same manner as a criminal investigation. Insistence on the report following the formal rules of evidence observed by the courts is misplaced, since what is at issue is not individual criminal culpability, but the adequacy of state action with respect to its obligations under international human rights law.

The fairness or validity of the report, rather, should be assessed by the methodology used in collecting the information on which it was based. In the case of the Alston report, it was anchored on extensive interviews from the government, military and civil society, as well as documents provided by these same groups. In other words, its conclusions came after the weighing of information from various, undoubtedly contradictory, sources.

That the report paints a grim picture of the Philippine situation cannot be denied. But rather than viewing it as a public relations dilemma that has to be “handled” or dismissed, government should take up the real challenge of acting on the recommendations set forth in the report. After all, Alston’s investigation was done at the behest of the Philippine government itself. It would be the height of obtuseness, not to mention absurdity, for the government to dismiss the selfsame findings it sought.